Guidelines for uniform soil test-based P fertilisation recommendations across the EU

The current bioavailable P status in European agricultural soils will be determined, which is a prerequisite for optimising P fertilisation level and for reducing environmental impacts caused by excessive use of P. Out of LUCAS soil archive, 3 000 soil samples from agricultural soils will be selected to cover the full range of soil texture, pH, organic C and Olsen-P in all EU countries. Results of the nutrient analyses will be extrapolated to the entire LUCAS dataset by using soil characteristics provided by the LUCAS project. Choropleth maps for concentrations of bioavailable P and other elements in agricultural soils in EU will be provided, determined with the current state-of-the-art methods. Combining soil P status of EU agricultural soil and threshold values for crop production gives an estimation of P fertilisation requirement that can be supplemented with the BBFs.