Opportunities and barriers to on-farm composting and compost application: A case study from northwestern Europe
Introduction
Input-intensive agricultural practices such as the use of mineral fertilizers, frequent soil tillage, narrow crop rotations, and past shifts in land use (Sleutel et al., 2003, Sleutel et al., 2006) have led to decreased soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks, biodiversity loss, soil erosion, and pollution of groundwater and air (Kirschenmann, 2010). One of the most important characteristics of soil fertility is sufficient SOC (Aggelides and Londra, 2000, Stamatiadis et al., 1999, Turner et al., 1994, Zebarth et al., 1999), while the SOC content of many croplands in temperate regions is declining (European Commission, 2006, Maes et al., 2012, Sleutel et al., 2003, Van-Camp et al., 2004). Improving and maintaining soil quality and fertility in a sustainable way is thus an important challenge for modern agriculture. Moreover, policymakers (e.g. European Commission, 2012, The White House, 2012) are encouraging rapid development of the bioeconomy, which relies on renewable biomass instead of finite fossil inputs for the production of value-added products such as food, feed, biobased products and bioenergy (OECD, 2013). As a consequence, this development will require a high soil fertility and increases the need for sustainable soil improvers, since fertile soils are the prerequisite to reliably produce the necessary biomass as feedstock for food and biobased products (Meyer-Kohlstock et al., 2013).
Compost application has well-established beneficial impacts on soil quality, soil fertility and the environment. Despite knowledge of these benefits, compost application and compost production on the farm (referred to below as on-farm composting) is not a common practice in Flanders (the northern region of Belgium), a region characterized by large manure surpluses. We have evaluated the current challenges regarding on-farm composting and compost application in Flemish agriculture in the context of sustainable soil management. In this paper we (1) critically review the potential strengths of compost application, and (2) describe the current compost production and use in Flanders. Next, (3) we analyze the barriers to on-farm composting and compost application, and based on this analysis (4) we formulate a number of preliminary recommendations to alleviate certain barriers. A mixed method approach was used to analyze the case of Flanders, which can be exemplary to other northwestern European regions, in particular Denmark, The Netherlands, North-West Germany, the North-West of France, the Po-valley in Italy and parts of England, which have a similar climate and intensity of agriculture (Sleutel et al., 2007), and the same problems with water quality (Velthof et al., 2014).
Section snippets
Review of the characteristics and potential strengths of compost application
To sustainably increase SOC, farmers should change their soil management practices that often rely heavily on the application of mineral fertilizers and intensive soil tillage. Alternative management strategies for increasing or maintaining SOC can include alterations in crop rotation, rotation with temporary grassland, reduced soil tillage, use of (leguminous) green manure crops (cover crops) or the use of organic fertilizers. Examples of such organic fertilizers are farmyard manure, slurry,
Methodology
This study of the barriers to on-farm composting and compost use in agriculture focused on the case of Flanders, the northern region of Belgium. Flanders is characterized by a maritime temperate climate. The cultivated land surface of 622,738 ha (46%) is dominated by loamy, sandy loam and clay soils (Platteau et al., 2014). Currently, Flanders counts 24,884 farm enterprises with an average size of 25 ha. The main crops are fodder (including grassland) (56%) and arable crops (36%) mainly including
Compost use
Q3 and Q4 indicated that the majority of the Flemish farmers apply inorganic (mineral) fertilizers (93% of the arable farms and 97% of the mixed farms) and/or slurry (85% of the arable farms and 100% of the mixed farms) as a source of nutrients. Farmyard manure is also a widely used organic fertilizer in arable farming (adoption rate of 67%) and to a lesser extent in mixed farming (58%). Most farmers also incorporate maize grain straw (71% of the arable farms and 80% of the mixed farms).
Barriers to on-farm composting and compost application in Flanders
The respondents of both studies acknowledged the positive effects of compost on soil quality. For instance, the respondents in Q3 and Q4 believe that compost application has beneficial effects on aspects they believe to be important such as: improved soil fertility (Q3), more diverse soil life (Q4), better soil health (Q3), lower erosion risk (Q3), better water infiltration and drainage (Q4), increased humus content (Q3 and Q4), improved soil structure (Q4), improvement of heavy soils (Q3) and
Discussion
Fig. 2 summarizes the abovementioned barriers and their relationships. In total, 28 barriers were identified: 10 to on-farm composting, 16 to compost application and 3 barriers that affect both on-farm composting and compost application. For on-farm composting, 11 barriers, and for compost application, 14 barriers were direct barriers (continuous arrows in Fig. 2). When only looking at the numbers of identified barriers, the figure shows that market and financial barriers are the most important
Recommendations
Based on the abovementioned insights, five types of recommendations are suggested that could potentially alleviate a number of the identified barriers. First, we suggest exploring alternative forms of compost production. Currently, compost is almost exclusively produced by either a professional, (semi-)industrial composter or produced on-farm by the farmer. One potential alternative could be outsourcing the on-farm production process to a service provider. These service organizations would be
Conclusions
Research on what hinders farmers from composting on their farm and applying compost on their fields is scarce. This paper is the first to give a general overview of the different barriers to on-farm composting and compost application in Flemish agriculture. We found a relatively large number of diverse (financial, informational and legislative) barriers. More specifically, the shortage of woody biomass, strict regulation, considerable financial and time investment, and lack of experience and
Acknowledgements
We wish to thank all the participating stakeholders for their information and ideas, with special thanks to Koen Mondelaers. This research was partly executed within the Catch-C project. The project Catch-C (Grant Agreement N° 289782) is co-funded by the European Commission, Directorate General for Research & Innovation, within the 7th Framework Programme of RTD, Theme 2 – Biotechnologies, Agriculture & Food. The views and opinions expressed in this paper are purely those of the writers and may
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