IMPROVE-P - Assessing the suitability of recycling phosphorus fertilizers for organic farming

Summary

The document is the summary of IMPROVE-P results
Background
Organic farming systems rely on the effi cient use and recycling of available resources. Currently, some mineral nutrients like phosphorus are used only once to produce food. Subsequently, they are lost due to poor recycling of organic wastes back to farmland. Simultaneously, P balances calculated for organic farming indicate that often more P is removed with the products than applied as fertilizer. Consequently, this leads to decreasing amounts of plant available soil P. There is an urgent need to improve the recycling of P from urban areas and the food industry, back to cropland.