The power of polyhalite to increase crop yields
A decade’s worth of global trials has confirmed that Anglo American’s polyhalite product, POLY4, significantly improves crop yields by 3-5% compared to conventional fertiliser practice across a wide range of crops, soils, and environments.
The study, published in the Agronomy Journal of the American Society of Agronomy, used one of the world’s largest datasets of its type and was assembled by Anglo American’s team of expert agronomists and soil scientists in collaboration with leading research institutions and expert statisticians.
Through analysing data from 921 replicated field trials conducted over 10 years, covering 47 crops in 33 countries the research confirmed that POLY4 consistently increased yield by 3-5% over standard NPK fertiliser programmes.
The findings prove to the highest possible scientific standard that low carbon, natural polyhalite fertiliser improves crop yields across the globe, meaning it can help meet increasing market demand for the high performance, sustainable crop nutrition solutions.
Universities and independent researchers compared POLY4 performance with traditional NP (Nitrogen + Phosphorus), NPK (Nitrogen + Phosphorus + Potassium), and NPKS (Nitrogen + Phosphorus + Potassium + Sulphur).
The results showed that POLY4 fertiliser programmes outperformed conventional fertilisers with a 6.6% yield increase over NP and 3.2% over NPK controls for all the trials. For the trials that were responsive to K or S, this increase was further increased to 12.2% over NP and 4.8% over NPK controls.
The most responsive crops in the study were sugarcane (+16.3% yield), vegetables (+12.5% yield), and potatoes (+9.5% yield) when compared to n.
