Nutrient Management and Nutrient Recovery Thematic Network

Project Information

NUTRIMAN

Grant agreement ID: 818470

DOI

10.3030/818470

Project closed

EC signature date 18 September 2018

Start date 1 October 2018

End date 30 September 2021

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine, maritime and inland water research, and the bioeconomy

Total cost

€ 1 999 927,50

EU contribution

€ 1 999 927,50

Coordinated by

3R-BioPhosphate Ltd.
Hungary

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - NUTRIMAN (Nutrient Management and Nutrient Recovery Thematic Network)

Reporting period: 2019-10-01 to 2021-09-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Agriculture has a high dependence on resources in their production and striving for long-term sustainability, food safety and supply security. To improve the sustainability of food production, extended upcycling and reuse of by-product streams needed which meet the new EU „FPR” Fertilising Products Regulation 2019/1009 that will be implemented from July 16, 2022. Therefore, all available and „ready for practice” matured innovative nitrogen and phosphorus recovery technologies and products that meet the most urgent needs of farmers, need to be captured, spread and integrated into agricultural practice.
NUTRIMAN is a N/P thematic network compiling knowledge “ready for practice” (beyond TRL 6) for such recovered products, practices and technologies, interconnecting applied science and industrial practice, for the interest and benefits of the agricultural practitioners.
NUTRIMAN opened new opportunities for farmers to develop connections between applied researches with practical results and farming practice in the priority area of nutrient management and nutrient recovery for better preparation to implement the FPR. The project promoted “ready for practice” large scale take up of the recovered N/P innovative fertilisers produced from un-exploited resources of organic and/or secondary raw materials in line with the circular economy and Green Deal model, and economical/environmental/climate efficiently used by farmers. This action has been contributed to the successful deployment of the vast reservoir of existing applied scientific/practical knowledge on the N/P recovery theme, including multi lingual abstracts in Farmer Platform and interlinked EIP-AGRI. The effective dissemination and exploitation promoted by multilingual web Farmer Platform and other communications, knowledge exchange activities and best practice field demonstrations and workshops for farmers.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Over 1000 innovative N/P solutions identified (WP2), but only those selected for final listing which ready for practice (above TRL 6). A longlist consisting of 140 technologies/143 products has been created. Specific selection criteria have been set up for evaluation. Farmer Advisory Board invited to be participated in the selection procedure. A qualified shortlist containing 47 technologies/52 products created. Bottom-up approach used, potential end-users evaluated the reduced list of technologies and products. Bottlenecks for adoption and incentives have been identified. 25 best practices have been selected.
82 easily accessible practice oriented abstracts in EIP-AGRI form of products and technologies and 14 thematic practice abstracts have been prepared and published in English language (WP3). Several practice abstracts also translated to 7 other languages. Almost hundred infosheets, audio-visual materials, infographics and training materials have been prepared in English languages, several also translated to seven other languages (FR, DE, IT, ES, NL, PL, HU). A multilingual booklet containing the 25 practice abstracts published on the NUTRIMAN website.
WP4 knowledge exchanges were organized in a bi-directional way: 53 demonstrations took place, where in total 20 different products and 6 different technologies were assessed and showcased to end users. 77 national workshops, 9 international workshops and one final conference organised. These events brought together people from across the agricultural innovation landscape and provided an opportunity for closer interaction and exchange of information and experiences.
Practice oriented NUTRIMAN web platform (https://nutriman.net/farmer-platform ) set up (WP5) for creation of long term open access training database. This Farmer Platform is summarising, sharing and presenting high maturity „ready for practice” N/P recovery technologies and products, that is focusing on the most urgent needs of farmers. The Farmer Platform is an European digital library for the “ready for practice” innovative technologies and products with high impact knowledge reservoir content that is systematically and continuously build up, upgraded, conserved and expanded by the coordinating organisation up to <2031.
The NUTRIMAN successfully built added value and coherently integrated cooperation with several Networks with practice-oriented knowledge relevance on the nutrient management thematic area. Direct interlinking and networking activity made with existing advisory and networking structures (Producers Organisations, Chamber of Agri Network) for the N/P recovery via notably European organizations as EUFRAS and COPA-COGECA.
NUTRIMAN website set up (WP6) and continuously expanded with practical contents. Two NUTRIMAN press releases published. More than four hundred Multilingual articles AND more than 1000 multilingual Q&A published on the website.
NUTRIMAN published six Multilingual newsletters and 6 multilingual thematic newsletters.
NUTRIMAN used extensive social media communication tools: Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin. Youtube channel has also been established including videos from the demo events, workshops and any other video materials.
NUTRIMAN directly reached nearly 3 million people.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Phosphorus “P” is an essential, non-renewable and the single most irreplaceable (<2% of applications having a viable substitute only) critical nutrient raw material resource for maintaining agriculture in competitive way. The EU farmers rely on the continuous input of mined non renewable P and energy-intensive N supply. P-rock, has been identified by the EC as a critical raw material (COM/2020/474). For P-fertilisers, the EU is currently highly dependent on import P-rock mined outside of the EU that is highly contaminated with cadmium and uranium toxic elements. In order to confront with these threats EU agricultural and environmental policy set as priority the nutrient recovery and reuse of organic waste materials, residues and by-products under the framework of a circular economy.
The EC and the MS Governments having intention to better utilize the un-exploited biomass by-product streams and aim to find better and more sustainable ways of resource management for long term. Recovered Nitrogen and Phosphorus are critically important products in this respect. Using of domestic sourced recovered N, P-nutrient is critically essential for a sustainable, competitive and resource efficient circular European agriculture. Novel fertilisers have the potential to mitigate environmental impacts of crop production through effective nutrient recovery.
NUTRIMAN increased the farmers' knowledge, confidence and acceptance toward novel bio-based fertilisers. NUTRIMAN compiled practice-oriented high impact knowledge resources in the field of innovative N/P recovery technologies and products; which are already in high maturity development status (e.g. above TRL6), near close to being put into practice, but not sufficiently known or used by practitioners.
The NUTRIMAN high level impacts are to CONSERVE the practical knowledge for the long term, INCREASE the flow of practical information between farmers, ACHIEVE GREATER USER ACCEPTANCE of high impact knowledge solutions while PROMOTING the user uptake of the innovative results to create high benefit impacts for Farmers. The NUTRIMAN resilience technologies and products opening new technical, economic and environmental/climate ways while charting a path towards greater food safety with improved supply security and sustainability.

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