Principles of Soil Management - Principles of Sustainable Soil Management in Agroecosystems - page 4

TABLE 1.2
Fertilizer Use (N, P, K) on Continental Basis in 2009

Nutrients (10 6 Mg)

Region N P K Total

World 106.0 17.1 17.8 140.9

Africa 2.5 0.4 0.3 3.2

North America 12.5 1.7 2.9 17.1

Central America 1.4 0.1 0.2 1.7

Caribbean 0.05 0.05 0.02 0.1

South America 4.8 1.7 2.7 9.2

Asia 69.4 11.0 9.1 89.5

Europe 13.5 1.4 2.6 17.5

Oceania 0.9 0.4 0.06 ?

Australia and New Zealand 0.9 0.4 0.05 1.3

Source: FAO. FAOSTAT, 2012. http://faostat.fao.org/Rome .

and 90 kg/ha in the world (Table 1.3). Of the global irrigable land area of 287 Mha,
only 13.6 Mha (4.7%) is irrigated in Africa, and most of it is in the North Africa/
Middle East countries. Indeed, the per capita irrigated land area is the lowest (0.013
ha) in Africa (Table 1.3). Therefore, two important management factors, nutrients
and water, are being used at a suboptimal level throughout the continent. It is not
surprising, therefore, that the current relative crop yield with references to the high-
est regional yield anywhere in the world is the lowest in Africa. The data in Table 1.4

TABLE 1.3
Total Population and Per Capita Fertilizer Use and Irrigated Land Area in 2007

Per Capita Land Area
(ha)

Arable Land (10 6 ha)

Population
(10 6 )

Fertilizer Use
(kg/ha) Region Total Irrigated Total Irrigated

World 6974 1553.7 286.8 0.223 0.041 90.7

Africa 1046 246.5 13.6 0.235 0.013 13.0

North America 346 225.3 23.8 0.647 0.068 76.0

Central America 158 35.2 8.2 0.222 0.052 48.3

Caribbean 42 7.1 1.3 0.169 0.031 14.0

South America 397 125.8 10.4 0.317 0.026 73.1

Asia 4208 573.3 201.3 0.136 0.048 156.1

Europe 739 293.4 26.3 0.397 0.036 59.6

Oceania 9 1.7 0.1 0.189 0.011 -

Australia and
New Zealand

27 45.3 3.1 1.678 0.115 29.8

Source: Recalculated from FAOSTAT.2012. http://faostat.fao.org/Rome .