Feedback from national events: advisory services utterly important
SuMaNu partners organised altogether nine national stakeholder events, some were even lucky enough to have traditional, real live events. However, the online meetings worked very well, and they were a good way to organize the events and gathered participants from diverse stakeholder groups. The aim of the events was to get feedback to the SuMaNu policy recommendations.
Phosphorus regulation (policy recommendation #1) and fertilization planning and nutrient balancing (policy recommendation #2), were widely seen as very important measures. However, farm-gate nutrient balance calculation would have some challenges in its practical implementation and would need databases and strong support by advisors.
Handling and spreading manure (policy recommendation #3) raised discussion, as the time window vs. weather conditions can always be debated. However, there were also questions about investments, as increasing manure storage capacity is expensive. In many countries, banks were not prepared to grant loans for manure storages.
Nutrient reallocation (policy recommendation #4) from the regions of P surplus to the regions in need of P brought up the challenge of economic feasibility of manure processing. In the future, the advantages of manure for the soil quality by increasing the organic matter can add perceived value of manure.
Surprisingly, safety issues (policy recommendation #5) did not raise a lot of discussion. This can be interpreted more as a lack of knowledge of the subject rather than cordial harmony of opinions.
However, knowledge transfer between stakeholders (policy recommendation #6), produced great unison; information sharing and advisory services were seen utterly important by all actors. There is a constant need of bottom-up and top-down information. Farmers would want to have more concrete examples and numbers related to the economic issues on manure and nutrient management. The authorities need to get information on the concrete influence of new policies and regulations.
The link to the whole report from national stakeholder events.