The project
Main goal
To promote new fertilisation strategies that improve management of subproducts from slurry treatment.
How?
Introducing new management strategies for subproducts from livestock waste treatment and adapting application technology.
What is the reason for the project?
Livestock waste management is complex in areas with a high density of farms, and more so when they are surrounded by crops where such waste is not normally applied, such as fruit trees.
In such areas, slurry management can be helped by treatment, but currently both adapted machinery and knowledge of slurry composition and new regulations and certification for the application of its subproducts are lacking. Progress in these areas will help reduce the impact of livestock waste.
AGRICLOSE seeks to facilitate application and management and provide more information on its composition, so that such products can be used properly for fertilisation and as frequently as chemical fertilisers.
Objectives
Developing new management strategies
- Increasing the number of hectares in which subproducts from slurry treatment are applied, thanks to application to fruit trees.
- Promoting the use of digestates for corn cover dressing.
- Adapting liquid fraction and digestate applications to extensive summer and winter agriculture (wheat and barley).
- Establishing a slurry solid fraction composting programme in farms, making use of other farm materials.
Adapting application machinery
- Adapting application machinery to the conditions of fruit orchards:- Fertirrigation equipment for applying slurry liquid fraction.
– Tanker for applying digestates to fruit trees.
– Spreader for applying slurry solid fraction. - Automatic dispensing through fertirrigation of slurry liquid fraction to corn.
Contributing to environmental improvement and maintenance.
- Increasing organic matter in the soil by introducing conservation agriculture for corn.
- Reducing the use of mineral nitrogen and potassium fertilisers in stone fruit orchards and nitrogen fertilisers for corn.
- Determining the content of antibiotic-resistant agents in slurry and treatment subproducts, and establishing methods for determining their potential migration to soil and crops.
The LIFE Programme
The European Union’s LIFE programme is the main funding instrument to support, update and develop European Community environmental policies and regulations, particularly with respect to: the incorporation of environmental issues in other policies; the sustainable development of the European Community; and the search for new solutions to environmental problems at European scale, through demonstration projects.
Since 1992, LIFE has co-funded over 4,500 projects. For the 2014-2020 funding period, it will contribute approximately 3.4 billion euros to environmental and climate protection.
The current phase of the LIFE programme (2014-2020) has a budget of 3.4 trillion euros, and addresses three priority areas:
– Environmental resource efficiency
– Nature and biodiversity
– Environmental information and governance
It will contribute to sustainable development and the attainment of the objectives and goals of the Europe 2020 strategy, the 7th Environment Action Programme, and other relevant strategies and plans on the environment and climate.