%0 Journal Article
%T Managing the Nutrition of Plants and People
%A Philip J. White
%A Martin R. Broadley
%A Peter J. Gregory
%J Applied and Environmental Soil Science
%D 2012
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2012/104826
%X One definition of food security is having sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to meet dietary needs. This paper highlights the role of plant mineral nutrition in food production, delivering of essential mineral elements to the human diet, and preventing harmful mineral elements entering the food chain. To maximise crop production, the gap between actual and potential yield must be addressed. This gap is 15¨C95% of potential yield, depending on the crop and agricultural system. Current research in plant mineral nutrition aims to develop appropriate agronomy and improved genotypes, for both infertile and productive soils, that allow inorganic and organic fertilisers to be utilised more efficiently. Mineral malnutrition affects two-thirds of the world's population. It can be addressed by the application of fertilisers, soil amelioration, and the development of genotypes that accumulate greater concentrations of mineral elements lacking in human diets in their edible tissues. Excessive concentrations of harmful mineral elements also compromise crop production and human health. To reduce the entry of these elements into the food chain, strict quality requirements for fertilisers might be enforced, agronomic strategies employed to reduce their phytoavailability, and crop genotypes developed that do not accumulate high concentrations of these elements in edible tissues. 1. Introduction Food security can be defined as having sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to meet the dietary needs of an active and healthy life [1]. This paper discusses the role of plant mineral nutrition in crop production, the delivery of mineral elements required for human wellbeing, and the prevention of toxic mineral elements entering the human food chain. Crop production is predicated on the phytoavailability of sufficient quantities of the 14 essential mineral elements required for plant growth and fecundity (Table 1; [2, 3]). These are the macronutrients, nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), and sulphur (S), which are required in large amounts by crops, and the micronutrients chlorine (Cl), boron (B), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), nickel (Ni), and molybdenum (Mo), which are required in smaller amounts [4]. Deficiency in any one of these elements restricts plant growth and reduces crop yields. In geographical areas of low phytoavailability, these mineral elements are often applied to crops as inorganic or organic fertilisers to increase crop production [2, 3]. However, the application of fertilisers incurs both economic
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/aess/2012/104826/