Facing up to the phosphorus challenge

Summary

The loss of phosphorus in exported products is a concern for all organic producers. The team of CORE Organic Project "Improve-P" assess attitudes to alternative phosphorus fertilisers among organic stakeholders. This paper reports on results collected via a questionnaire at the National Soil Symposium in Solihull, UK November 2014. 58 respondents showed a large interest in recycled P fertilisers, e.g. derived from human urine. One respondent
who summed up the workshop in this way: Ultimately for sustainability we have to replace P, lost off farm but balance between purity and recycling is a difficult one. We
need to focus on making best use of P reserves in soil, for example deep-rooting green manures, efficient composting, P
scavenging plants, that is, getting more P into the organic fraction and sourcing less contaminated sources of P.