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Dryad

N-P-K fertilizer application rates by crop and country for circa 2020

Data files

Jul 31, 2025 version files 10.57 MB

Abstract

All fertilizer application rates are on elemental basis (P = P2O5 x 0.436; K = K2O x 0.830). Imputation to build complete crop x year N-P-K time series data: Subnational- to global-scale understanding is built using FUBC information collected from individual countries and sub-nationally with ~800,000 data points for 1980-2022. Briefly, a three-step imputation process with an additional preprocessing was used. In the first step long-term average FUBC was determined. In the second step the exact year observations was identified, which is then allowed to pass on unchanged. In a final third step the numbers from the first and second step are readjusted (observations are not adjusted) to flexibly match the total agricultural fertilizer consumption in a country as reported by the FAO. Sub-national FUBC rates for ten major crops in 25 agriculturally important countries use a similar three-step iteration method. For the remaining countries, only the national FUBC values are reported. For mapping the fertilizer application rates of the ten major crops an annual gridded crop dataset was used.