Plant nutrition in the 20th and perspectives for the 21st century

This paper briefly presents the knowledge of plant nutrition in 1900 and its expansion since then in two areas the discovery of the micronutrients and the absorption of nutrients from soils. Application of macro-and micronutrient fertilizers has contributed substantially to the huge increase in world food production experienced this century. In developed countries, excessive fertilizer use has led to serious problems of nutrient pollution; here, plant nutritionists will be concerned with monitoring nutrient status of crops and soils to maintain crop production with minimum loss of nutrients to the environment, and development of cultivars with high nutrient efficiency in soils with luxury supplies of nutrients. In many developing countries, soil infertility limits productivity here, plant nutritional research can raise productivity by diagnosis of nutrient deficiencies and toxicities of crops on previously unfertilized soils, their correction with minimal fertilizer and treatment costs, and development of cultivars with high nutrient efficiency in deficient soils and high tolerance of natural toxicities. The pre-occupation of developed countries with pollution is blinding them to the urgent needs of developing countries for fertilizers and fertilizer research to increase crop production ha(-1) as an alternative to clearing more land.