25 02 2021

Latest news from LEX4BIO

LEX4BIO aims at optimising usage of bio-based fertilisers (BBF) from side-streams, ensuring their safety, building evidence-based trust in their usage and developing legislative framework for their use in order to reduce dependence upon mineral/fossil fertilisers, benefiting the environment and the EU’s economy.

Within the project activities, phosphorus fertilisation value of broad range of bio-based fertilisers (BBF), covering organic, organo-mineral and mineral BBFs from 7 material categories, have been selected and distributed for testing in five field experiments from Finland to Spain. Together with these potential CE-marked BBFs tested in field scale, at least 25 other P-BBFs will be tested in pot experiments with different crops and soil types.

Two pot experiments conducted in 2020 indicated that several P-BBFs are comparable to common mineral P fertiliser, triple superphosphate. A screening of national fertiliser regulations with respect to total and soluble P requirements in fertilisers clearly showed the need to develop a unified approach for testing BBFs. A subset of soil samples from the LUCAS soil archive has been selected for optimum coverage of soil characteristics across the EU. Finally, preparations for an experiment to assess potential leaching of P after mixing BBFs with different soil types in Europe is under preparation for starting the experiment in 2021.