PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
In intensive crop production systems, nutrients are often delivered via an irrigation system immediately after transplanting. This results in excessive use of water and fertilisers (sometimes double the amount of what is actually needed by the crop). Apart from the high production cost and the low competitiveness, such practices cause serious environmental problems. They are wasteful in terms of water consumption, and increase the risks of desertification, soil pollution and degradation, and water pollution through leaching of excess nutrients, while soil biodiversity can also be affected. Most of these impacts are already evident in southern Europe, where a significant percentage of cultivated land suffers from desertification, mainly due to intensive agriculture, climatic conditions, wildfires, increased soil salinity, and water shortages. The use of lower impact systems and the adaptation of specific and/or innovative technologies to reduce resource use, while simultaneously maintaining constant production levels, could lead to economic and environmental benefits at local and regional levels.
OBJECTIVES
The WASTEREUSE project addressed two significant environmental problems: the uncontrolled disposal of agricultural waste (e.g. olive oil mill wastes, waste from wine production) and the excess use of natural resources and nutrients (e.g. water, phosphate rocks used for the production of fertilisers). The project aimed to increase the recycling of water and nutrients, through the sustainable use of agricultural waste. It planned to achieve this by combining developed technologies in integrated methodologies. Specifically, the project's objectives included evaluating innovative and traditional technologies for agricultural waste treatment and its reuse in crop cultivation (irrigation and fertilisation); developing alternative cultivation practices for irrigated crops in the Mediterranean region by recycling water and nutrients from agricultural waste; protecting soil quality; reducing the carbon footprint of the agricultural sector; reducing natural resources and fertiliser use; and improving profit margins by reducing external inputs.
RESULTS
The WASTEREUSE project developed and demonstrated best practices for the use of agricultural wastes for irrigation and fertilisation of crops. The project team demonstrated a new integrated approach on farms in Spain and Italy, and proposed measures that could be adopted by Mediterranean countries for widely-grown crops. The project evaluated both traditional and innovative agricultural waste treatment practices, as well as their suitability in terms of crop irrigation. Based on the project’s results, a set of alternative cultivation practices was developed. The methodologies for selecting and using agricultural wastes took into account the protection of soil quality and the reduction of the overall carbon footprint during crop production.
An initial assessment was conducted of existing agricultural waste treatment technologies. The project team produced a report that reviewed 49 EU-funded projects (39 of them LIFE projects), which developed waste treatment technologies such as olive oil mill wastewater, wine production waste, animal waste, and rice straw. A second report evaluated all these technologies using technical, environmental, economic and socio-cultural indicators.
The project team characterised agricultural wastes treated by different technologies as well as the Mediterranean soil types in which the target crops are grown. Laboratory experiments were conducted that evaluated processed solid wastes (composts) and wastewaters derived from different methods/technologies, regarding their suitability to promote crop production and quality, as well as their potential effect on soil properties. New cultivation methods for vegetables and cereals were also developed in Spain and Italy. The project demonstrated and assessed different methods of using agricultural waste in open field cultivations in Spain (cereals) and Italy (lettuce and cabbage), and also in greenhouses in both countries. A series of reports summarised the findings, in terms of yield, plant health, production costs, water and nutrients consumption, soil quality and other parameters. The project has a high demonstration value, as it provided a clear methodology on how agricultural wastes could be valorised in order to replace a fraction of chemical fertilisers, thus generating profits for farmers and benefits for the environment. An effective dissemination campaign was conducted, particularly via the participation of the project team in scientific meetings and through numerous articles published in peer-reviewed journals.
The results of a Life-Cycle Analysis (LCA) indicated that crop cultivation using valorised agricultural waste presents clear advantages in terms of productivity, energy efficiency and economic benefits, thus leading to higher incomes for farmers and lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared to traditional farming. Although the project team indicated that reusing agricultural wastes in most cases reduces the operational costs of farming, further data is still required to fully prove whether this approach will finally increase the overall competitiveness of Mediterranean agricultural products via reductions of external inputs.
Potential environmental benefits from reusing agricultural wastes include: 1) the reduced use of fertilisers and other artificial chemicals, which improves the overall quality of soil and water, and protects fauna and flora; 2) the reduction of the demand for fertilisers, which is linked to lower environmental impacts from fertiliser production; and 3)the reuse of specific agricultural waste means that less waste is transported and disposed (e.g. in landfills) with increased benefits for local ecosystems. The project’s methodology potentially contributes to the implementation of several EU policies, mainly related to resource use efficiency, waste management, nitrate pollution, and water quality.
Further information on the project can be found in the project's layman report and After-LIFE Communication Plan (see "Read more" section).
