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A review of the studies on phosphate rock for agricultural use in China

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Abstract

Since the early 1940's, systematic studies on phosphate rock (PR) for agricultural use have been made in China. These covered the following aspects: Mineralogical properties of phosphate rock materials, including svanbergite; Ability of different plants to absorb phosphorus from PR; Effect of soil properties on the availability of PR to plants; Technologies for processing powdered PR.

Since these studies are mostly published in Chinese [4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 15, 16, 17, 18], they are virtually unknown to agronomists and soil scientists outside China. The present article is a comprehensive review of the studies on PR for agricultural use carried out in China during the last 50 years.

It is shown that because of the easily decomposable properties of certain Chinese PR's, the limited industrial potentialities in present day China (particularly the shortage of sulphuric acid), the large areas of strongly acid red soils in Southern China, the introduction of legume crops in the rotation, and the planting of perennial trees, notably rubber in tropical areas, the direct application of powdered PR for agricultural use appears to be very advisable.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Soil Science, Academia Sinica, Nanjing, People's Republic of China

    Jiang Bai-fan, Lu Ru-kun & Li Ching-kwei

Authors
  1. Jiang Bai-fan
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  2. Lu Ru-kun
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  3. Li Ching-kwei
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Jiang, Bf., Lu, Rk. & Li, Ck. A review of the studies on phosphate rock for agricultural use in China. Fertilizer Research 26, 11–20 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01048740

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