LANDBASERT-LANDBASERT

Due to intensified agricultural practices and the impacts of climate change, soils are rapidly degrading worldwide and becoming increasingly nutrient deficient. With the rising cost of commercial fertilizers, there is a pressing need to develop sustainable solutions that can maintain soil fertility by supplying sufficient nutrients. In sustainable agriculture, closing the nutrient loop by recycling nutrients from waste resources into valuable fertilizers is a key approach. The main objective of AgroComposit is to create a cost-effective, climate-smart composite fertilizer through co-composting locally available waste sources and by-products (e.g. aquaculture waste streams, sewage sludge, biogas digestate etc.) with biochar. The resulting biochar-compost composites are expected to improve the quality and productivity of degraded soils by enhancing nutrient availability, increasing water-use efficiency under drought stress, promoting carbon sequestration, and supporting soil biodiversity. A reduction in greenhouse gas emissions is an additional anticipated benefit. The EJP project AgroComposit builds on recent advances in co-composting with biochar and aims to address key knowledge gaps in this field. As a consortium, AgroComposit will: 1. design, produce, and characterize novel biochar-compost composite fertilizers; 2. test their fertilizer value from laboratory to field in a scale-up technology development; 3. develop a database to match specific biochars, organic wastes, and low-quality soils with appropriate cropping systems, facilitating the design of site-specific soil improvement strategies; 4. apply life cycle, cost-efficiency, and environmental risk assessments to evaluate the performance, sustainability, and potential drawbacks of the technologies; and 5. create pathways for implementing these new fertilizer solutions in agricultural practice. The project contributes to five of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and represents an important step towards more sustainable, circular, and climate-resilient agricultural systems. In Norway, the new fertilizer regulations led NIBIO to refine the project’s focus and strengthen knowledge on the use of fish sludge as a raw material for composting. In 2024, we developed fish-sludge composting solutions, progressing from small-scale laboratory experiments to medium-scale trials at NIBIO’s research facilities. This phase was completed in early 2025, enabling the transition to greenhouse tests. We also built strong collaboration with industry partners to prepare for future pilot-scale composting based on insights from earlier trials. To assess nutrient availability in the composites, we conducted a pot trial on phosphorus release and a semi-field trial on nitrogen supply. In parallel, a consortium-wide study led by NIBIO was launched to examine nitrogen mineralization in the final composite products. Together, these activities are strengthening the scientific basis for evaluating nutrient efficiency and the agronomic performance of AgroComposit fertilizers.

In a climate-smart agriculture, it is necessary to recycle waste resources, however currently still only a small proportion of all organic wastes is recycled back into the soil. The main goal of the Agrocomposit project is to develop site-specific soil improvement technologies applying composite soil amendments produced from region-specific organic wastes and by-products. The composites will be suitable for the effective improvement of low-quality soils and their productivity focusing on the enhancement of nutrient availability, water use efficiency under drought stress, carbon sequestration and improving biodiversity. The project will primarily focus on co-composting biochar and various organic wastes, such as kelp, aquaculture waste streams, sewage sludge, and the organic fraction of municipal solid waste, which are produced in large quantities in the participant countries but are not effectively utilized. The European consortium will: 1) produce and characterize biochar-compost composite fertilisers 2) using a scale-up approach, test the efficacy of composites in lab-scale, greenhouse pot, and field scale studies against commercially available fertilizers 3) carry out Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) and assess the benefits of the technology in terms of climate mitigation, economic outcomes and assess the environmental risks 4) Establish multiple channels of dissemination to implement the new approach of utilizing locally available waste to create fertilizers. The project will support the transition towards a sustainable circular economy and answer six UN SDGs. NIBIO in Norway will work closely together with the European consortium to help connect the aquaculture/marine industries with agriculture and create a waste-based innovative fertilizer - from co-composting e.g. fish sludge, kelp residues or other locally available wastes - that can sustain national food production and is less affected by geopolitical disruptions than mineral fertilizers.