Articles, reports and data on crop nutrition and soil in Pakistan
VAN’s knowledge pages explain Pakistan’s soil and crop nutrition. Every figure in the 6 articles and reports below is given with its source and its date.
Soil Poverty: Punjab’s Potash. As potash runs short, urea and DAP buy less yield
In 2023-24, Punjab’s 5 main crops (wheat, rice, sugarcane, maize and cotton) removed an estimated 940,000 tonnes of potash (as K₂O) from the soil, and fertiliser put back about 36,000 tonnes (NFDC offtake records). If potash fertiliser use in Punjab does not rise, the report’s model projects that Punjab’s area-weighted average available soil potassium will fall below 100 ppm (parts per million) around 2036 in the average case, the median of the model results. The worst case is 2027 and the best case 2044; there is a 1 in 10 chance that the year is earlier than the worst case, and a 1 in 10 chance that it is later than the best case. These are model projections, not soil-test measurements. The report is by Tahir Abbas. The full report can be downloaded as a PDF.
The cost of low nitrogen use efficiency in Pakistan
29 of every 100 kg of nitrogen added to Pakistan’s cropland were taken out in the harvested crop in 2023. At the Rabi 2024-25 urea price of Rs 193 a kg, the nitrogen added for each kg taken out is worth about Rs 660. Where the 5.7 million tonnes went, what China, the European Union and India did, and the 4 approaches to raising efficiency. With the full PDF.
The 17 nutrients a crop needs, and why the one in shortest supply limits the harvest
The article explains what each of the 17 nutrients does in the plant, what a crop looks like when it is short of one, and which nutrients help or hinder each other. An interactive barrel, based on Liebig’s Law of the Minimum, lets a grower enter the number of bags of each product applied to 1 acre. It then shows which nutrient is furthest below the amount in VAN’s crop plan for that crop, as a share of the plan amount.
Pakistan is not short of fertilizer. It is short of nutrition that reaches the crop
The article compares Pakistan with India, Bangladesh, China and the United States on fertiliser use, the balance between nutrients, the crop harvested for each kg of fertiliser nutrient, and what happens to the nitrogen applied. It names the source of every figure.
We have been spending the soil’s capital, not its income
Every harvest removes nutrients from the soil. The article compares the potassium removed by crops with the potassium applied, summarises published soil surveys, and explains why Pakistan has no national record of soil nutrient levels over time.
A bag is not a dose. How a nutrient is delivered is part of the product
The article explains what each application method (broadcast, fertigation, foliar spray and drone spray) and each irrigation system (pivot and drip) requires of a product. It lists the 3 maize trials of Vital Urea run from 2023 to 2025. It also describes One Tank, the VAN product family formulated for the 20-litre tank of a spray drone.
Interactive charts of Pakistan’s nutrient data
The charts compare Pakistan with any country the reader chooses: on fertiliser use per acre, on the balance between nutrients, on crop yield per kg of fertiliser nutrient and on nitrogen use efficiency. They also show the model projection of available soil potassium in Punjab from the Soil Poverty report.
Soil Atlas: 770,160 soil samples from Punjab
The Soil Atlas shows the results of the Punjab soil testing programme for each of the 36 districts. The samples were tested in about 2016 to 2018.
Source · Punjab soil testing programme · 36 district workbooks · 770,160 valid samples · tested in about 2016 to 2018. Read the method and limitations before quoting these figures ›
Recovering potassium from crop residue ash
VAN recovers potassium from the ash of crop residue burned in boilers, and uses it in its own fertiliser in place of imported potash. Recovery of silicon from the same ash is still in research and development.
A deck for each of VAN’s 23 brands
Each deck explains what the product is, what it does for the crop, where it fits in the season and what its limits are.
VAN has published 28 crop plans. Each of its 23 brands also has a technical data sheet and a safety data sheet, on the brand’s own page. See the crop plans →
Ask VAN’s agronomy team
VAN’s agronomy team answers questions on VAN’s main WhatsApp number.