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Nutrient budgets help to identify excess or insufficient use of fertilizers and other nutrient sources in agriculture. They allow calculation of indicators such as the nutrient balance (surplus or deficit) and nutrient use efficiency that help in monitoring of agricultural productivity and sustainability across the world. We present a global database of country-level budget estimates for nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) in cropland. The database, disseminated in FAOSTAT, is meant to provide a global reference, synthesizing and continuously updating the state-of-the-art on this topic. The database covers 205 countries and territories, as well as regional and global aggregates, for the period 1961 to 2020. Results highlight the wide range in nutrient use and use efficiencies across geographic regions, nutrients, and time. For the year 2020, the data show regional average N surpluses that range from about 10 kg N ha-1 year-1 in Africa to more than 90 kg N ha-1 year-1 in Asia. Furthermore, they highlight P and K deficits in Africa in 2020 and K deficits for the Americas. This study introduces improvements over previous work in relation to key nutrient coefficients affecting nutrient budgets and use efficiency estimates, especially for nutrient removal in crop products, manure nutrient content, atmospheric deposition and crop biological N fixation rates. We conclude by discussing future research directions, highlighting the need to align statistical definitions across research groups, as well as to further refine plant and livestock coefficients and expand estimates to all agricultural land, including nutrient flows in meadows and pastures.

Southeast Asia is a major rice-producing region with a high level of internal consumption and accounting for 40% of global rice exports. Limited land resources, climate change and yield stagnation during recent years have once again raised concerns about the capacity of the region to remain as a large net exporter. Here we use a modelling approach to map rice yield gaps and assess production potential and net exports by 2040. We find that the average yield gap represents 48% of the yield potential estimate for the region, but there are substantial differences among countries. Exploitable yield gaps are relatively large in Cambodia, Myanmar, Philippines and Thailand but comparably smaller in Indonesia and Vietnam. Continuation of current yield trends will not allow Indonesia and Philippines to meet their domestic rice demand. In contrast, closing the exploitable yield gap by half would drastically reduce the need for rice imports with an aggregated annual rice surplus of 54 million tons available for export. Our study provides insights for increasing regional production on existing cropland by narrowing existing yield gaps.

Nutrient inputs play a critical role in raising crops and livestock for food security, human nutrition and other uses in the bioeconomy. Their production and management must change so as to nourish crops, reduce harmful environmental impacts caused by nutrient losses and contribute to the restoration of soil health more effectively. A new paradigm for plant nutrition follows a food system approach in which multiple socioeconomic, environmental and health objectives must be achieved. The coming 10–20 years will be most critical for making the transition to a global food system in which all stakeholders look at food and nutrients in a holistic manner, including in regard to their hidden environmental, health and socioeconomic costs. Consumers, as well as governments and other stakeholders, need to support such a transformation, because farmers and the industry supporting them will not be able to implement all of the required actions alone. The outcome of this transformation will be a new societal plant nutrition optimum, rather than a purely economic optimum. The new nutrient economy will become an integral component of a low-carbon emission, environment-friendly and circular economy, supporting the food and nutrition requirements of a rising global population and improving the income and livelihood of farmers worldwide.

Current definitions of essential or beneficial elements for plant growth rely on narrowly defined criteria that do not fully represent a new vision for plant nutrition and compromise fertilizer regulation and practice. A new definition of what is a plant nutrient that is founded in science and relevant in practice has the potential to revitalize innovation and discovery. A proposed new definition might read: A mineral plant nutrient is an element which is essential or beneficial for plant growth and development or for the quality attributes of the plant or harvested product, of a given plant species, grown in its natural or cultivated environment. A plant nutrient may be considered essential if the life cycle of a diversity of plant species cannot be completed in the absence of the element. A plant nutrient may be considered beneficial if it does not meet the criteria of essentiality, but can be shown to benefit plant growth and development or the quality attributes of a plant or its harvested product. It includes elements currently identified as essential, elements for which a clear plant metabolic function has been identified, as well as elements that have demonstrated clear benefits to plant productivity, crop quality, resource use efficiency, stress tolerance or pest and disease resistance. We propose an open scientific debate to refine and implement this updated definition of plant nutrients. Other outcomes of this debate could be a more precise definition of the experimental evidence required to classify an element as a plant nutrient, and an independent scientific body to regularly review the list of essential and beneficial nutrients. The debate could also attempt to refine the definition of plant nutrients to better align with nutrients deemed essential for animal and human nutrition, thus following a more holistic ’one nutrition‘ concept.

Grasslands cover around 25% of the global ice-free land surface, they are used predominantly for forage and livestock production and are considered to contribute significantly to soil carbon (C) sequestration. Recent investigations into using ‘nature-based solutions’ to limit warming to

Malaria, human immune deficiency virus (HIV) and tuberculosis (TB) are leading causes of death and public health threat to millions in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The DRC is the second most malaria affected sub-Saharan African country after Nigeria, with malaria being the leading cause of death in children under 5 years (Lechthaler et al., 2019). The HIV prevalence in the country in the adult population stands at 1%, with extensive variations by region (UNAIDS, 2021c). The DRC is considered a high burden country for TB and HIV infection (Linguissi et al., 2017). This rapid review emphasizes significant elements of the epidemiology of malaria, HIV, and TB in DRC, as well as limitations in prevention, detection, and treatment, and examines a few interventions that aim to address these limitations. Evidence utilised is a mixture of the most recent grey literature NGO (programme reports and related documents) literature supplemented by peer reviewed academic literature from the past five years and national survey data when available. Although the clinical disease aspects of malaria, HIV and TB are well-researched there is less research available on socio-demographic variation, disease control challenges and interventions targeting these in the DRC. This is part of a series of reports looking into Epidemiology of Malaria, human immune deficiency virus (HIV) and tuberculosis (TB) across a set of African Nations.