Pro rato: how to apply less mineral fertilizers by using digestate

Several field trials2 that were carried out over the past few years (2011-2015) have shown that nitrogen from anaerobically digested products is more available to plants than nitrogen in non-digested manure. Within the pro rato field trials of 2016 Ghent University, VCM, Biogas-E & Inagro will be testing how to use more of these products so farmers can reduce application of mineral fertilizer. At the moment all digestate is considered animal manure from the moment one drop of manure goes in the installation. This means that the application of digestate as a fertilizer is limited to 170 kg N per ha. The European Commission approved the start of practical research in Flanders on fertilization with digestate products from co-digesters, following a pro rato system. This research has been started in the framework of negotiations considering the next manure action plan. The pro rato system means that only the percentage of nitrogen that enters the digester as animal manure, is considered animal manure in the digestate. The remaining shares may be considered as 'other fertilizer', which is a separate category next to mineral fertilizer and animal manure. For example: for an installation that gets 50% of its total nitrogen supply from livestock manure, 50 % of the nitrogen in the digestate is considered animal manure and 50% is labeled 'other fertilizer'. The aim is to encourage the use of products from digestate that show higher N/P shares (e.g. liquid fraction of digestate, mineral concentrates, …), as an additional fertilizer on Flemish agricultural land. Moreover, this should also enable using smaller amounts of mineral fertilizer. In 2016 several hundreds of hectares will be fertilized following the pro rato system, crop production and nitrate residue will be evaluated.

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