Dr Aoife Egan from the Sustainable Infrastructure Research & Innovation group (SIRIG) in MTU Cork represented ReNu2Farm CAP at the Circular@WUR 2022 Conference in Wageningen, the Netherlands on 11th -13th April and at the Biorefine Conference 2022 in Ghent, Belgium on the 30th-31st May.
In Wageningen, a research poster was presented that displayed their findings on what farmers across North-West Europe are looking for in recycling-derived fertilisers (RDFs). The presentation was titled “What are the Desired Properties of Recycling-Derived Fertilisers from an End-User Perspective?” During the poster presentation, the topics on what are the most important qualities of RDFs, what were the participants' preferred RDF textures, what qualities must the RDFs have to encourage mineral fertiliser substitution and what price would encourage them to substitute were covered. There was great interaction between the delegates regarding this work, with a lot of interest in this poster at the conference, specifically about the participant engagement, the benefits of RDFs and RDF use in other sectors.
MTU was invited to speak at the conference in Belgium where they presented an overview of the research on market demand for RDFs across North-West Europe for the ReNu2Farm CAP project. The presentation was titled “Is There a Demand for Recycling Derived Fertilisers in North-West Europe? An explorative approach to farmers' fertiliser requirements in the agricultural sector and investigating the demand in new markets”. The presentation highlighted what farmers are looking for in mineral fertiliser alternatives, farmers’ acceptance of RDFs and the RDF demand in new markets in the horticulture and recreational sectors. There was great interest in this topic at the conference regarding the importance of stakeholder engagement in sustainable agriculture in Europe relating to nutrient recovery and recycling.