Healthy Soil for Urban Agriculture through Nutrient and Carbon Circularity

NUTRISOIL aims to enhance urban agriculture by improving soil quality and nutrient recovery through circular resource management, fostering collaboration among stakeholders to boost local food production.

Subsidie
€ 150.000
2024

Projectdetails

Introduction

Many policies promote urban and peri-urban agriculture (UA) through circularity of nutrients to increase food autonomy, minimize food losses, and reduce environmental impacts associated with transport, mineral fertilizer production, and waste management.

Current Challenges

Yet up to date, most EU cities have low local crop production. Although they generate vast volumes of nutrient-rich waste, nutrient recovery through composting and wastewater treatment to substitute mineral fertilizer for application in UA is still anecdotal.

Key Issues

What is hindering nutrient circularity for application in UA and what can be done to overcome the obstacles?

  1. The variability and quality of recovered nutrients is one key issue.
  2. However, there is a more important underlying problem that has not been addressed: the impoverished state and quality of the urban and peri-urban agricultural soil.

Soil Quality Concerns

Adding nutrients to a carbon-deficient soil is counter-productive, resulting in:

  • Reduced rooting patterns
  • Increased sensitivity to droughts
  • Ultimately lower yields

Potential Solutions

The solution to impoverished soils and poor local crop production lies in the cities themselves. A large proportion of urban residues are rich in decomposable organic carbon and can be used to:

  • Enhance soil microbiota function
  • Counteract acidification
  • Improve soil quality and nutrient cycling efficiency

Pathway Towards Urban Agriculture

The pathway towards UA is to preserve and increase soil organic matter (OM), while increasing nutrient recovery in urban areas. This can be achieved through resource circularity right within the city.

Project Goal

The goal of NUTRISOIL is to clearly identify, address, and resolve these soil-related obstacles to the sustainable implementation of UA in cities by providing the technical expertise and creating a knowledge transfer exchange amongst:

  • Farmers
  • Composting facilities
  • Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs)
  • Administration
  • Policy makers
  • Various governing and coordinating associations implicated in the entire cycle of nutrients in the city: from waste to food.

Financiële details & Tijdlijn

Financiële details

Subsidiebedrag€ 150.000
Totale projectbegroting€ 150.000

Tijdlijn

Startdatum1-1-2024
Einddatum30-6-2025
Subsidiejaar2024

Partners & Locaties

Projectpartners

  • UNIVERSITAT AUTONOMA DE BARCELONApenvoerder

Land(en)

Spain

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