Fertilizer use and food security in China

Fertilizer use plays an important role in crop production to ensure food security in China. At the same time, the relatively low nutrient use efficiency resulted in negative impact on environment quality. Therefore, scientific use of nutrient resources and improvement in fertilizer use efficiency is an important scientific issue rated to national food security and environment quality. This review paper discussed Chinas basic situation with large population, limited arable land, relatively low land productivity and fragile ecosystem, analyzed fertilizer demand to meet the rapid increase in crop production, overviewed current use of organic and inorganic nutrient resources, and revealed N loss from chemical fertilizer application and its impact on environment. Based on deep understanding of the existing problems and great challenge China is facing, the authors proposed a new fertilizer recommendation strategy-regional fertilizer rate control with adjustment at field level, developed regionalized nutrient management for small size farm operation system and precision fertilization for large scale farm operation. The current situation and existing problems in slow/controlled release fertilizers and in organic nutrient resources were also discussed. For sustained increase in crop production to support food security and to protect the environment, the technic strategy was proposed, including increase of land productivity, improvement of all nutrient resources using advanced science and technology, realization of regionalized fertilizer recommendation based on land productivity. Favorable policies and continuous financial support to fertilizer related science and technology development was also suggested.