PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
Left unchecked, the degradation of cultivated soils could lead semi-arid tracts of European farmland to desertification. Fields across the continent are threatened by both natural processes, such as erosion, floods, drought and landslides, and human intervention, including ground contamination. As a result, land in some parts of the EU is already growing more compact, less permeable to water, saltier and losing the organic matter needed to grow healthy crops. More sustainable soil practices will require clear information shared widely among farmers and the public, a firm legislative framework, integrating elements of protection from EU, national and local polices, and innovative technical solutions for restoring degraded soil that are both economically and environmentally sustainable.
OBJECTIVES
The LIFE ZEOWINE project targeted an improvement in soil quality in vineyards by combining organic waste from wine production with microporous minerals known as zeolites. The innovative product, known as ZEOWINE, could loosen the structure of soils, improve their ability to retain water, add organic matter to them and foster subsurface microbial life. The project aimed to roll out protocols for producing ZEOWINE and apply it in organic and biodynamic vineyards. Manufacturing the soil additive could help save energy by closing the cycle of locally-produced organic waste. LIFE ZEOWINE intended to boost the competitiveness of wine production in the EU by helping vines take in minerals and water more efficiently, ultimately driving up yields and grape quality. These measures were designed to test a new approach for countering soil degradation in agriculture, paving the way to its wider adoption.
The project's actions were expected to boost the content of organic matter in soils and soil structure in line with the EU soil thematic strategy. Boosting enzyme activity and microbial abundance in soils would support the implementation of the EU biodiversity strategy and the European atlas of soil biodiversity.
RESULTS
The LIFE ZEOWINE project defined a method for producing ZEOWINE, a compost of wastes from the wine sector and zeolite that can be applied in vineyards to protect the soil. The compost was applied over three years on several vineyards in Italy, using pomace and stalks in combination with different quantities of zeolite, chosen with an optimal size of 0.2 mm to 2 mm.
The team created three heaps of the compost, weighing around 9 tonnes each, at a wine waste to zeolite ratio of 1 to 2.5, along with one heap at a ratio of 1 to 10 and one control heap composed of winery waste only. They then monitored the evolution of organic substance, regularly turning the heaps to promote aeration and irrigating the heaps to optimise the water content, with humidity maintained at 50% until the end of the composting process. The composting lasted around five months, at the end of which time the characteristics of the compost heaps were found to comply with the Italian legislation governing green composted soil conditioners.
The compost was applied on productive vineyards and new vine plants of the project partner CMM at San Miniato, Tuscany, along with the vineyards of supporting partners –Col d’Orcia (Montalcino, Siena), and Tenuta delle Ripalte (Isola D’Elba) – and the vineyards of Tenuta Santo Spirito (Ragusa, Sicilia).
The soil at these sites was assessed immediately after the treatment and again after six and 18 months, with the following improvements on the control plots observed:
- 30% increase in soil organic carbon;
- 50% increase in microbial functionality;
- 38% increase in soil biodiversity; and
- 40% reduction of the bioavailable copper.
The project team also assessed the qualitative improvement of the grapes and wines produced. They found that a better balance between sugar content and anthocyanins could be achieved with the compost, as well as a higher alcoholic content of the wine. Overall, yields were higher and the grape were heavier.
Environmental benefits included:
- Reduction in water consumption due to the increase in the water retention capacity of the soil;
- Improved waste management, since the winery waste is recycled and not disposed of in landfills;
- Reduction in CO2 and NO2 emissions compared to the conventional management with mineral fertilisers; and
- Carbon sequestration.
The beneficiary registered its company in the Italian register of fertiliser, with the ZEOWINE product recorded in the fertiliser register. The product is also classified under the constituent materials category (CMC) 3 in EU legislation, thus allowing it to be marketed across the EU. However, for it to be classified as compost, the concentration of zeolite had to be reduced to 5% by weight (the minimum used in the project was 10%).
Further information on the project can be found in the project's layman report and After-LIFE Communication Plan (see "Read more" section).
