It essential to plant, animal and human life. Good health requires sufficient intake of potassium, and plants we eat get it from potash fertilizers. Plants grown for food require large amounts of potassium. It is one of the three nutrients, along with nitrogen and phosphorus, needed in large amounts by plants.
Plants use potassium in such functions as photosynthesis, protein formation and water use.
Potassium, or potash, is mined from naturally occurring ore bodies that were forms as sea water evaporated. After it is mined, the potassium chloride is separated from the mixture and results in a granular fertilizer. Most of the world's potash deposits are found in Canada, Russia, Belarus, Germany and the United States.