Recommendations for crop nutrition

1-Refrain from imposing international blanket restrictions on the cadmium content of phosphate fertilizers. There are many uncertainties with regard to phytoavailability and bioavailability that make standard setting for environmental cadmium very difficult.

2-Promote site-specific soil and crop management techniques to reduce cadmium uptake by crops.

3-Target, to the extent possible, the use of low-cadmium phosphate sources to the most susceptible farming systems, such as subsistence rice growing areas and areas with acidic soils.

4-Identify and protect soils with already high cadmium contents from further cadmium inputs, from all sources. On these soils, it is recommended to grow crops with low cadmium uptake, to use crops with high cadmium uptake for phytoremediation purposes, or to transform these areas into set-aside for either industrial or recreational purposes.

5-Regarding future progressive accumulation of cadmium in soils, it is recommended to correct/prevent zinc deficiencies in order to minimize cadmium in grain, apply limestone to acidic soils, reduce salinity or the chlorine content of soils, reduce the cadmium content of phosphate sources (fertilizer, sewage sludge, manure) through decadmiation, blend nutrient sources with different cadmium levels.

6-Encourage the adoption of corporate responsibility, quality assurance and product stewardship programmes.