Measured in the field, sugarcane takes up more potassium than nitrogen — 265 against 220 kilograms per hectare. Across the country as a whole, for every tonne of potash applied, Pakistan applies eighty-three tonnes of nitrogen. That gap is not a preference or a price effect. It is the largest single nutritional deficit in Pakistani agriculture, and it is why crops here lodge, cook in the heat, fill badly and give up their sugar reluctantly.
Vital Potash is built for the moment the crop actually needs potassium — its mid-life peak — and carries boron in two forms so the potassium can get in.
of potash per hectare — Pakistan's average as reported in 2017, among the lowest in the world. (FAOSTAT puts it at 1.48 kg for 2023; both are on the same floor.) Meanwhile 40% of Pakistani soils are now potassium-deficient, despite mica-rich parent material, through decades of continuous cropping without replacement.
Wakeel, A. & Magen, H. (2017), International Journal of Agriculture & Biology 19(3); Pakistan Fertilizer Statistics.
The two numbers side by side. This is the whole argument for potash in Pakistan.
kilograms of potassium for every kilogram of nitrogen — measured in the field, not modelled.
one kilogram of potash for every eighty-three kilograms of nitrogen, nationally.
Source · Uptake: Rama Lakshmi, S., Sreelatha, T. & Sireesha, A. (2019), An Asian Journal of Soil Science 14(1&2):67–72. National application: FAOSTAT Fertilizers by Nutrient via Our World in Data (2023). Both ratios derived from the figures shown below.
Nitrogen makes a plant grow. Potassium decides whether that growth turns into anything. It runs the plant's water economy and its stomata, so it governs drought and heat tolerance. It moves sugar from leaf to stalk or grain, so it governs filling and sweetness. It stiffens cell walls, so it governs lodging. A crop given nitrogen without potassium grows tall, soft and thirsty, and then falls over or fails to fill — which is a recognisable description of a great deal of Pakistani farming.
The full national record, 1980 to 2023. It is not a story of decline — it is a story of a gap that has never closed.
Both lines are on the same axis, in the same units. The potash line is not missing — it is the flat one along the bottom.
| 1980 | 2023 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nitrogen applied | 843,574 t | 3,808,775 t | 4.5 × |
| Potash applied | 9,643 t | 45,735 t | 4.7 × |
| Potash as a share of all nutrient | 0.89% | 0.94% | unchanged |
Source · FAOSTAT, Fertilizers by Nutrient, via Our World in Data. Full annual series 1961–2023; the chart shows 1980 onward. Shares derived.
Potash use has grown — slightly faster than nitrogen, in fact. But it grew from almost nothing, and it is still almost nothing. Potash was 0.89% of the nutrient Pakistan applied in 1980. In 2023 it was 0.94%. Two generations of farmers, a fivefold increase in fertilizer, and the balance is exactly where it started.
Its highest point in forty-three years was 2.6% in 1987, and its lowest was 0.35% in 1996. It is more volatile than it is improving: it fell 61% in a single year between 2021 and 2022, from 77,867 tonnes to 30,508. Potash is imported and priced in dollars, so it is the first thing dropped when money is short — and the last thing bought back.
Source · Derived from FAOSTAT Fertilizers by Nutrient via Our World in Data — potash as a percentage of N + P₂O₅ + K₂O applied.
Applying under 1% while harvesting a full crop every season has one arithmetic consequence.
Every harvest removes potassium from the field. Sugarcane removes more of it than nitrogen. If almost none is put back, the difference comes out of the soil's own reserves — and those reserves are finite even in soil that started rich. Pakistan's parent material is mica-rich, which is why the deficit went unnoticed for so long: the soil had capital to spend, and it has been spending it.
Despite mica-rich parent material — through continuous weathering, intensive cropping and nutrient mining without adequate replenishment.
Wakeel, A. & Magen, H. (2017). Potash Use for Sustainable Crop Production in Pakistan: A Review. International Journal of Agriculture & Biology 19(3).
A regional nutrient budget covering 1970–2018 found a cumulative negative balance of 247 million tonnes of potassium across South Asia — an order of magnitude larger than the nitrogen or phosphorus deficits over the same period.
Pathak, H., Fagodiya, R. K. & Singh, A. (2024). Scientific Reports 14:29136. DOI 10.1038/s41598-024-77134-x.
Not every crop is equally hungry. Sugarcane is the extreme case, and it is the case that matters most for this country.
Sugarcane is one of the few major crops that takes up more potassium than nitrogen. It takes up more than four times as much potassium as phosphorus.
| Nutrient | Highest uptake recorded | Relative to phosphorus |
|---|---|---|
| Potassium | 264.99 kg/ha | 4.2 × |
| Nitrogen | 219.90 kg/ha | 3.5 × |
| Phosphorus | 62.70 kg/ha | 1.0 × |
Field experiment at Regional Agricultural Research Station, Anakapalle, 2013-14; six sugarcane genotypes, three early and three mid-late. Figures are the highest uptake recorded across genotypes.
Source · Rama Lakshmi, S., Sreelatha, T. & Sireesha, A. (2019). Nutrient distribution pattern and uptake by different sugarcane genotypes at different growth stages. An Asian Journal of Soil Science 14(1&2):67–72. DOI 10.15740/has/ajss/14.1and2/67-72.
Takes up more K than N. A long season, an enormous biomass, and sugar that has to be transported from leaf to stalk — every one of those is a potassium job.
Bulking and fruit-filling crops move large quantities of sugar and water in a short window. Potassium demand is concentrated and unforgiving.
Lower total demand, but the same dependence at grain filling. Lodging in wheat and poor filling in maize are frequently potassium problems mistaken for nitrogen ones.
This is the finding the product is built around.
Four independent field studies, four different answers on the exact number, and complete agreement on the pattern: potassium is taken up early and fast, and is essentially finished by the time the crop flowers. Phosphorus is barely half-taken by the same point.
| Study | Nitrogen | Phosphorus | Potassium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bender et al. (2013) | 67% | 46% | 66% |
| Hanway et al. | 65% | 50% | 90% |
| Karlen et al. | 65% | 46% | 88% |
| Ciampitti et al. | 70% | 49% | 122% |
Percentage of season-long uptake completed by the R1 (silking) growth stage. Potassium can exceed 100% because uptake peaks before flowering and then falls as potassium is lost from tissue — which is itself the point: the potassium has to be there early, because later it is leaving, not arriving.
Source · As compiled in Singh, R., Sawatzky, S. K. & Thomas, M. et al. (2023), Agronomy 13(7):1913, reviewing Bender et al. (2013), Hanway et al., Karlen et al. and Ciampitti et al.
Across six site-years and eight varieties, soybean had accumulated 91 to 100% of its season-long potassium by R5.5, against only 68 to 77% of its phosphorus. Half of that potassium then leaves in the stover rather than the seed — a potassium harvest index of 49%, against 81% for phosphorus.
Source · Gaspar, A. P., Laboski, C. A. M. & Naeve, S. L. (2017). Phosphorus and Potassium Uptake, Partitioning, and Removal across a Wide Range of Soybean Seed Yield Levels. Crop Science 57(4):2193–2204.
Potassium is immobile in soil. It does not travel to the root; the root has to reach it, and the plant has to move it across the root membrane and then around the plant. Boron is directly involved in that traffic — in membrane integrity, in cell wall structure, and in the transport of sugars that potassium governs. A potassium product that ignores boron is relying on a mechanism it has not fed.
That was the insight in 2012, and the answer was to put the boron on the potash granule itself rather than leaving it to a separate application that most growers would never make. But a single boron source will not do the job, for a reason that is pure chemistry.
Highly soluble and immediately plant-available, so it meets the demand that exists the moment the product dissolves. Its weakness is the same as its strength: being highly soluble it is subject to leaching, and it may be gone before the crop reaches its later requirements.
Intermediate to slow release. It stays in place and continues to supply boron through the later part of the season, when the fast form has already leached away. Its weakness is the mirror image: on its own it may not release quickly enough for early demand.
The two failure modes are complementary, so carrying both sources on one granule covers the season from both ends — early availability from the soluble form, sustained availability from the slow one. This is the principle Vital Potash is built on.
Delivered on the potassium granule rather than as a separate pass. The grower makes one application; the boron arrives in the same place, at the same time, at the same rate as the potassium whose uptake it supports.
The behaviour of the two boron forms described above is established soil chemistry and is not specific to any manufacturer. What is ours is the decision to build a potash product around it in 2012, and the coating system that delivers both forms on the granule.
Why the coating matters to the potassium. Potassium moves in the phloem, and phloem loading depends on intact membranes and on the sugar-transport chemistry boron takes part in. A crop short of boron does not move what it takes up as well as one that is not. Coating the boron onto the potash granule puts both at the root at the same time, in the same pass, at the stage the crop is drawing hardest on both — rather than supplying the potassium and leaving the transport question to a separate application that may not happen. That is the design decision behind Vital Potash, and it is a mechanism, not a trial result: VAN publishes no yield figure for it.
Nitrogen 11% · K₂O 44%, boron-coated. Solid crystalline powder, light blue. pH 6–7, solubility 330 g/L. Fully soluble, so it will not clog drip emitters or spray nozzles.
The two macronutrients are taken up together and work together — potassium governs how efficiently the plant uses nitrogen, so supplying them in one product at the mid-life window supports both. It also means one application rather than two at the busiest point of the season.
| Crop | Stage — the uptake window | Dose per acre | Method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sugarcane | Canopy development & grand growth phase | 10 kg + 10 kg | Fertigation |
| Maize | Flowering | 10 kg | Fertigation |
| Rice | Booting | 15–20 kg | Fertigation |
| Wheat | Booting | 10 kg | Fertigation |
| Cotton | Flowering | 10 kg | Fertigation |
| Potato | Tuber initiation & formation | 10 kg + 10 kg | Fertigation |
| Sunflower & oilseeds | Before and at flowering | 10 kg + 10 kg | Fertigation |
| Banana | Flowering & fruit formation | 20 kg + 20 kg + 20 kg | Fertigation |
| Orchards | Fruit formation | 20 kg | Fertigation |
| Fruiting vegetables | Germination, flowering & fruit formation | 10 kg × 3 | Fertigation |
| Onion & garlic | Flowering & bulb formation | 10 kg + 10 kg | Fertigation |
| Leafy vegetables | Vegetative growth | 10 kg | Fertigation |
Doses per acre, from VAN agronomy. Every stage above sits inside the crop's potassium uptake window rather than at land preparation — which is the point of the product. Registered under PS 933-2026, PSQCA manufacturing licence CM/L-4124/2025, packed in 20 kg. The standard and licence match the regulatory register and the pack size matches the specification sheet.
Growing something not listed? The full stage-by-stage programme for 28 crops is in our crop nutrition plans →
Vital Potash is available for private label and for licensing, with formulation detail released under NDA through the partner dossier.
