Potassium (K) is essential for plant growth and vital for soil health. However, despite high crop demand, K fertilization continues to be ignored or severely inadequate in Indian agriculture. Over time, this could lead to severe depletion of soil K reserve, irreversibly alter K-bearing minerals, and adversely affect soil fertility and crop productivity. Hence, we should comprehensively assess the alarming situation of soil K mining in India and come up with appropriate solutions. Keeping the above in mind, here we review the soil K pools concerning plant availability, their contents in major soil orders of India, reasons and status of soil K mining under major crops and cropping systems in India, and the impact of long-term K mining on soil K pools and clay minerals. We also address various aspects of sustainable K management in agriculture and suggest future action courses focusing on India. Our main findings are: (i) farmers in India mainly apply nitrogen and phosphorus, but little or no K; consequently, (ii) net K balance continues to be negative for most crops and cropping systems across India (e.g., - 3.29 million tonnes [Mt] in 2000–01, - 7.2 Mt in 2015–16); (iii) long-term K mining primarily depletes the exchangeable and non-exchangeable K pools in soil, and alters clay minerals to various extents; and (iv) the existing K fertilizer recommendations need an upward revision. We further enlist indigenous non-conventional alternatives of K fertilizers to meet the agricultural K demand. This is the first comprehensive review to simultaneously address the ongoing soil K mining in India, its impact, and its potential mitigation strategies. The points raised here would help reduce soil K mining, plan research work, and make policy decisions on K fertilization and residue management with the ultimate goal to prevent soil health deterioration and ensure sustainable crop production.

钾 (K) 对植物生长和土壤健康至关重要。然而，尽管作物需求量很大，但钾肥在印度农业中仍然被忽视或严重不足。随着时间的推移，这可能导致土壤钾储备严重枯竭，不可逆转地改变含钾矿物质，并对土壤肥力和作物生产力产生不利影响。因此，我们应该综合评估印度土壤钾矿开采的惊人情况，并提出适当的解决方案。考虑到上述情况，我们在此回顾了土壤钾库的植物有效性、它们在印度主要土壤目中的含量、印度主要作物和种植系统下土壤钾开采的原因和现状，以及长期钾的影响。开采土壤钾池和粘土矿物。我们还讨论了农业可持续钾管理的各个方面，并提出了以印度为重点的未来行动课程。我们的主要发现是：（i）印度农民主要施用氮和磷，但很少或不施用钾；因此，(ii) 印度大多数作物和种植系统的净钾平衡继续为负（例如，- 2000-01 年 - 329 万吨 [Mt]， - 2015-16 年 - 7.2 Mt）；(iii) 长期采钾主要消耗土壤中可交换和不可交换的钾库，不同程度地改变粘土矿物；(iv) 现有的钾肥建议需要上调。我们进一步征集当地非常规的钾肥替代品，以满足农业对钾的需求。这是第一次同时解决印度正在进行的土壤钾开采及其影响的全面审查，及其潜在的缓解策略。这里提出的观点将有助于减少土壤钾的开采，规划研究工作，并就钾肥的施肥和残留物管理做出决策，最终目标是防止土壤健康恶化并确保可持续的作物生产。