The real-time measurement of potassium in farmland soil has great importance. A method to determine the potassium content in farmland soil based on laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) was studied using a LIBS equipment consisting of a 1 064 nm laser generator and a high resolution spectrometer. The farmland soil samples with potassium content in the range of 8.74~34.56 g·kg-1 were analyzed. The 766.49 nm was chosen as the analysis line, by comparing the potassium atom characteristic lines of 404.40, 404.72, 766.49 and 769.90 nm. The errors of characteristic line strength caused by the laser stability and random noise was analyzed. The silicon, which is nearly constant in farmland soil, was chosen as the standard element, and a calibration model between the ratio of potassium to silicon (K/Si) and the potassium content was established. The linear fitting degree of the calibration curve was 0.935, and the relative standard deviation of the calibration model for prediction set samples was 9.26%.