Regional Characteristics of Fertilizer Use in China
中国区域化肥利用特征分析

This paper used county-level data to analyze historical changes in fertilizer use at the regional level from 1983 to 2004. The Chinese mainland was divided into 8 regions and 31 sub-regions for analysis of quantity and type of fertilizer use. Results show that fertilizer consumption in China's main grain production regions accounts for the majority of fertilizer use nationwide, more than 66%. The proportion of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer consumption is decreasing in recent years, while compound and potassium fertilizer use is increasing gradually. There is no significant difference in the ratio of P to N application between different regions, with values ranging from 0.48 to 0.71 but around 0.6 in most regions, which is considered reasonable. For K to N ratio, the maximum value was 0.47, but in most regions was below 0.20, which is considered relatively low. Regional patterns of fertilizer use showed different growth trends over the study period. At present, the quantity of fertilizer use in most sub-regions is more than 225 kg/hm2 for sown area, which suggests that fertilizer overuse is widespread and raises concerns over non-point source pollution.