The first part of this review documents the mechanisms of plant resistance to water shortages during growth. It has been indicated, that appropriate supply of crop plants with potassium improves their water management and consequently results in higher resistance to stresses, including droughts. The anti-stress potassium action is a consequence of higher K+ ions concentration in the soil solution (due to natural fertility or K fertilization); greater perpendicular range of the root system; faster growth rate of above-ground parts of a plant and, consequently, earlier coverage of soil surface. In the second part an attempt was made to explain the major reasons of considerable sugar beet yield losses in Poland, as well as their considerable dependence on weather conditions, i.e. year to year variability. The importance of factors was as follows (i) low, natural, level of available potassium (ii) high frequency of periods with water deficiency and (iii) insufficient, in relation to the nutrient requirement, K fertilization. Using experimental data it was shown that appropriate nutrition of sugar beet plants with potassium allowed them to survive during the critical growth stages and, consequently, reduced the risk of yield losses caused by drought.