Periodic Reporting for period 3 - Nutri2Cycle (Transition towards a more carbon and nutrient efficient agriculture in Europe)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2021-10-01 do 2023-09-30
Agriculture is crucial for the EU food supply and self-sufficiency, but also generates environmental challenges related to GHG emissions and nutrient pressure. European agriculture is under economic pressure due to its high dependency on import of primary nutrients and energy. Nutri2Cycle (N2C) aimed to enable the transition from the current suboptimal nutrient household in EU agriculture to the next-generation of agronomic practices, characterized by an improved cycling of nutrients and organic carbon.
Nowadays animal husbandry varies greatly between regions and countries, with the most intensive livestock production regions requiring (feed) and generating (manure) the largest nutrient streams whilst in those exact areas fertilization is limited. Meanwhile intensive crop production requires high nutrient efficiency products often realized by mineral fertilizer and insufficient (re)use of major plant nutrients and carbon. This has led to a disjunction between these 2 conventional pillars of agriculture. N2C started from the central notion that for better nutrient stewardship and mitigation, optimisation within these 2 pillars are necessary AND reconnection is needed by integrating farm-scale processing as 3rd pillar.
The project successfully set European baselines for existing farming systems and proposed, scrutinized and showcased more mature, optimized management systems including innovative technologies to better close the loops. N2C could conclude that the central three-way interaction as proposed is a viable approach for a more sustainable, circular European agriculture with farm scale anaerobic digestion and precision fertilization as key enabling technologies to mitigate GHG emissions. However, independent of the innovation, attention should be paid to down- or upstream stream effects of implemented processes as they might outweigh the positive impact of CNP recovery and recycling. Regional nutrient conditions (supply and demand) and energy prices showed to be leading in selecting the most optimal strategy and the economic feasibility of the selected innovation. At the same time, legal barriers and familiarity with the technology greatly influence transferability of technologies across regions.
Nowadays animal husbandry varies greatly between regions and countries, with the most intensive livestock production regions requiring (feed) and generating (manure) the largest nutrient streams whilst in those exact areas fertilization is limited. Meanwhile intensive crop production requires high nutrient efficiency products often realized by mineral fertilizer and insufficient (re)use of major plant nutrients and carbon. This has led to a disjunction between these 2 conventional pillars of agriculture. N2C started from the central notion that for better nutrient stewardship and mitigation, optimisation within these 2 pillars are necessary AND reconnection is needed by integrating farm-scale processing as 3rd pillar.
The project successfully set European baselines for existing farming systems and proposed, scrutinized and showcased more mature, optimized management systems including innovative technologies to better close the loops. N2C could conclude that the central three-way interaction as proposed is a viable approach for a more sustainable, circular European agriculture with farm scale anaerobic digestion and precision fertilization as key enabling technologies to mitigate GHG emissions. However, independent of the innovation, attention should be paid to down- or upstream stream effects of implemented processes as they might outweigh the positive impact of CNP recovery and recycling. Regional nutrient conditions (supply and demand) and energy prices showed to be leading in selecting the most optimal strategy and the economic feasibility of the selected innovation. At the same time, legal barriers and familiarity with the technology greatly influence transferability of technologies across regions.
N2C successfully mapped the CNP flows, systems and drivers in Europe (D1.2; D1.3; D1.4; D1.5; D1.6) and developed a novel farm model to assess nutrient flows and emissions for different farming systems in EU countries (D1.7). These baseline data and model are exploitable beyond N2C & policy development related to circular agriculture. Through a bottom-up approach 76 innovative technical and management solutions for farming systems were identified (D2.1) and shortlisted to 45 (D2.2) for experimental work (D2.3; D2.4; D2.5; D2.6) across 5 research lines (RL) focusing on (RL1) Innovative management systems, tool in animal husbandry (RL2) Innovative soil, fertilisation & crop management systems (RL3) higher-precision fertilization (RL4) Bio-based fertilisers from agro-residues & (RL5) novel animal feeds produced from agro-residues.
LCA compared the impacts of some of the innovative solutions. Although the majority of solutions directly reduced environmental impacts, resource use and up/downstream impacts sometimes outweighed the positive impact on CNP recovery and recycling (D3.4) which is a key message for future work. Social LCA identified potential social hotspots and opportunities, but also made clear that further development of sLCA methodology is necessary (D3.4). Economic feasibility for baseline production systems as compared to optimized systems showed that this is very case specific and highly dependent on the actual economic framework (e.g. energy prices, regional nutrient surplus, etc.) (D3.3; D3.6). To assist farmers in this a free online webtool was developed to support stakeholders in the economic evaluation when using bio-based fertilizers.
Through CAPRI and MITERRA modelling selected technical mitigation options were assessed for their environmental impact as compared to the baseline. All N2C technologies contributed to a net reduction in EU agricultural GHG emissions. "Farm-scale anaerobic digestion" emerged as the most effective for reducing GHG emissions while technologies on precision fertilization showed the highest potential for reducing nutrient losses (D4.2). The N2C lighthouse network of 14 demo’s demonstrated and validated selected innovations at relevant (farm)scale resulting in a Technology Readiness Level lift and more familiarity towards the stakeholders (D6.2).
N2C showed that also consumers play an important role in the circular transition. A customer survey with 5591 respondents across six countries showed – albeit distinct regional differences- a willingness to pay on average 27% more for particular circular products. Importantly a more clear European labeling landscape deems necessary for consumers (D5.1 & D5.2). Modelling also showed that dietary changes according to the EAT-Lancet recommendations combined with a carbon tax showed the highest reductions in all emission types, again suggesting that also consumers can contribute to achieving EU-wide mitigation goals (D5.3). The research data are available through 51 published SCI-E indexed papers (D7.8). A network of 12 National Task forces were set up as small collaborative instruments for stakeholders. Six policy recommendations emerging from the project were submitted to the EC and N2C lead the policy working group within the European Sustainable Nutrient Initiative guaranteeing exposure and long term impact (D7.7).
LCA compared the impacts of some of the innovative solutions. Although the majority of solutions directly reduced environmental impacts, resource use and up/downstream impacts sometimes outweighed the positive impact on CNP recovery and recycling (D3.4) which is a key message for future work. Social LCA identified potential social hotspots and opportunities, but also made clear that further development of sLCA methodology is necessary (D3.4). Economic feasibility for baseline production systems as compared to optimized systems showed that this is very case specific and highly dependent on the actual economic framework (e.g. energy prices, regional nutrient surplus, etc.) (D3.3; D3.6). To assist farmers in this a free online webtool was developed to support stakeholders in the economic evaluation when using bio-based fertilizers.
Through CAPRI and MITERRA modelling selected technical mitigation options were assessed for their environmental impact as compared to the baseline. All N2C technologies contributed to a net reduction in EU agricultural GHG emissions. "Farm-scale anaerobic digestion" emerged as the most effective for reducing GHG emissions while technologies on precision fertilization showed the highest potential for reducing nutrient losses (D4.2). The N2C lighthouse network of 14 demo’s demonstrated and validated selected innovations at relevant (farm)scale resulting in a Technology Readiness Level lift and more familiarity towards the stakeholders (D6.2).
N2C showed that also consumers play an important role in the circular transition. A customer survey with 5591 respondents across six countries showed – albeit distinct regional differences- a willingness to pay on average 27% more for particular circular products. Importantly a more clear European labeling landscape deems necessary for consumers (D5.1 & D5.2). Modelling also showed that dietary changes according to the EAT-Lancet recommendations combined with a carbon tax showed the highest reductions in all emission types, again suggesting that also consumers can contribute to achieving EU-wide mitigation goals (D5.3). The research data are available through 51 published SCI-E indexed papers (D7.8). A network of 12 National Task forces were set up as small collaborative instruments for stakeholders. Six policy recommendations emerging from the project were submitted to the EC and N2C lead the policy working group within the European Sustainable Nutrient Initiative guaranteeing exposure and long term impact (D7.7).
N2C provided a benchmark for CNP flows, systems & drivers of the main European farm systems and developed a farm model to assess nutrient flows and emissions for different EU farming systems. The overall sustainability and innovation capacity of farming systems can be enhanced and is technically feasible yet broad market introduction and replication is strongly dependent on the regional (nutrient) context, legal barriers & the economic framework. In this, the developed webtool is a particular exploitable result for farmers. Economic assessment demonstrated the volatility of the nutrient market as it is closely linked to the energy market & international trade of mineral resources. Furthermore, N2C has increased the farmers’ knowledge and acceptance through the lighthouse demo network.
N2C has set up transdisciplinary regional/national communities towards stakeholders (NTFs), scientists and policy makers (Nutrient Recycling Community of ESNI) and young researchers (PhD network) which will exist beyond the project (D7.7; D7.8). These initiatives form the backbone of long-term lasting of the results and provide an elevated level of scientific exposure to stakeholder groups while enabling the uptake of the results by other research/projects, further building instead of repeating data.
The N2C project team has published policy briefs (D4.3) providing research background to finetune and support the EC in developing policies. The recommendations are related to RENURE fertilizers, INMAP and the Soil Health Law. Three policy briefs were created in joint capacity with other EU projects. These cross-project statements are a strong exploitation measure and will help the EC in integrating the knowledge of European projects in their policy roadmap.
N2C has set up transdisciplinary regional/national communities towards stakeholders (NTFs), scientists and policy makers (Nutrient Recycling Community of ESNI) and young researchers (PhD network) which will exist beyond the project (D7.7; D7.8). These initiatives form the backbone of long-term lasting of the results and provide an elevated level of scientific exposure to stakeholder groups while enabling the uptake of the results by other research/projects, further building instead of repeating data.
The N2C project team has published policy briefs (D4.3) providing research background to finetune and support the EC in developing policies. The recommendations are related to RENURE fertilizers, INMAP and the Soil Health Law. Three policy briefs were created in joint capacity with other EU projects. These cross-project statements are a strong exploitation measure and will help the EC in integrating the knowledge of European projects in their policy roadmap.