Optimal use of fertilisers has become a crucial factor in the economic success of agricultural production. Specialist knowledge and expert advice for formulating a detailed nutrient management plan for crops has never been so valuable. Questions over rates of application, form of nutrient, and specific combinations of nutrients need to be targetted to the specific cropping system and with a detailed analysis of the local soil conditions and fertility level.
The highly competent and motivated K+S KALI GmbH team of experts consists of regional consultants and internationally active agronomists. Our consultants provide important information and innovation pertaining particularly to the nutrients potassium, magnesium, sulphur, sodium and phosphate, as well as to micro-nutrients. This knowledge is derived from a worldwide net of field experience, trials, and research in close cooperation with partners from farming, scienctific, academic and consultancy backgrounds
It is our objective to answer all questions relating to nutrient management which agricultural research faces now and in the future.
Today, the most important challenge is to supply food to a growing world population, on limited arable land. The global land area which is suitable for agricultural production cannot be increased significantly. Furthermore, the ever-increasing pressure of this land to produce crops has led to other problems of for example, capping, salinisation, erosion and desertification. Further expansion of arable land is only possible at the expense of natural ecosystems, such as rain forests. However, these natural eco-systems are necessary to counteract global climate change.
At the same time agriculture faces a second great challenge: as fossil fuels become limited, alternative energy sources are urgently needed. Agriculture makes an important contribution, by providing biomass, which can be exploited as a source of energy. However, biomass production directly competes with food production.
A third challenge is the changing consumer behaviour of large parts of the world population. The increased demand for meat products requires much more grain i.e. maize, to be used as feeding stuff for livestock farming, which also needs to be produced on the limited arable land. For these reasons, an intensification of agricultural production is unavoidable.
We are committed to developing fertilisation consultation services, which are adapted to human needs and to the environment, by applying our agricultural expertise and by supporting the appropriate use of our mineral fertilisers. K+S KALI GmbH can draw on long-term field trials and international projects, which will continue to play an important role as parts of our agricultural competence.
There are three current major fields of research identified by K+S KALI GmbH:
In order to realise the food and energy production objectives, yield per unit area need to be raised even further. Extensive knowledge has already been gained on the correlations between nutrient effect and yield formation, by evaluating pot- and field experiments.
What is even more important today is the question as to how the nutrient availability in the soil may be safeguarded, if agricultural crops are expected to reliably produce premium yields. This requires crops to take up significantly higher amounts of nutrients, within their vegetation period. Only the application of mineral fertilisers can guarantee this increased availability during a relatively short span of time, in an environmentally sustainable way.
In addition to providing premium fertilisers, targetted application is also essential - spatially as well as in relation to the actual demand. Precision fertilisation may be one solution. Together with our research partners we test systems for targeted soil and plant analysis, aided by aircraft- and satellite-supported sensors, which are able to evaluate the crop’s nutrient supply state. In a second step, the data recorded may be used to draw up georeferenced fertilisation-maps, which allow monitoring of custom-tailored and ecologically sound fertilisation.
Optimised fertilisation may significantly influence plant product quality. In close cooperation with the KTBL-Experimental Station in Dethingen, Germany and the Agronomic Department of the Georg-August-University in Göttingen, Germany, we were able to improve the quality of processing potatoes by optimising potassium and magnesium fertilisation. Field experiments proved that a balanced fertilisation with potassium and magnesium may significantly reduce the incidence of ‘black spot’, thereby positively influencing one of the important quality parameters for the production of potato chips and crisps.
We will continue to apply our expertise to the research of quality issues, such as the influence of fertilisation on plant resistance against diseases, or the influence of fertilisation on the nutritive value of crops, as this may decisively affect human health.
The effect of fertilisation on the plant-soil system is still largely unexplored. We have made it our business to use limited resources by applying intelligent fertilisation strategies, in order to guarantee sustainable production. In doing so, we are using a two-pronged approach: Best-Management-Practice (BMP) and interdisciplinary system research.
The Best-Management-Practice project in oil palm cultivation is conducted in cooperation with the International Plant Nutrition Institute (IPNI). This project examines the entire production system and the effect of each individual parameter on the total yield. An economic evaluation of the production system shows that optimised management in reference to yield, quality and environment effectively links the sustainable management of oil palm plantations with profitability
Interdisciplinary system research is an approach to understanding the complex correlations, which may allow better usage of limited resources by applying intelligent fertilisation strategies. The focus is on the resources soil and water, with the objective of improving water-use efficiency in the soil-plant system by targeted fertilisation with potassium and magnesium. For this purpose we have started a joint project with the universities of Halle, Gießen and Kiel in Germany, for researching the effects of potassium and magnesium on the plants, as well as on physical parameters of the soil. The project’s objective was to render the soil’s water store optimally accessible to the plant, in order to safeguard high yields even during dry spells.
As the above examples show, we apply our knowledge to a multitude of issues, in order to optimise production and quality of agricultural products. Our many years of experience and our expertise are therefore an important contribution to the feeding the ever-growing world population.
Product descriptions and further information on our fertilisers
Fertilisation recommendations for individual crops