Making use of agricultural nutrients

Recycle the nutrients – revitalise the water systems!

Finland is committed to become  a model country in nutrient recycling. The efficient recycling of agricultural nutrients will improve the health of the water systems, reinforce food security and create new business opportunities. New innovations are constantly being created, but increasing the efficiency ofnutrient recycling requires more doers, open-minded partnerships, and co-operation between all administrative sectors.

In order to meet this challenge key Prime Minister Juha Sipilä's government started a key project for circular economy. The actions of the government key  project included the second phase of the Making use of agricultural nutrients project. The objective of the project was to promote the government programme's goal of bringing at least 50% of the manure and municipal sewage sludge in areas sensitive with regard to the Baltic Sea and other water systems under advanced processing by the year 2025.

In order to achieve the objective, the Making use of agricultural nutrients project

• conveyed information on the funding possibilities related to the recycling of nutrients;
• promoted the networking and new experiments of nutrient recycling operators;
• conveyed essential research knowledge to practical operators;
• collected information on the results of existing research and experimental projects and new research needs; and
• identified the bottlenecks in nutrient recycling and facilitated their elimination.

The project was funded by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, and continued until 30 June 2019. The project was coordinated by the Natural Resources Institute Finland in close co-operation with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Ministry of the Environment, who were responsible for the government’s circular economy key project.

See also: The final report of the project (in finnish) 

Pilot programme provides funding for new solutions

The nutrient recycling pilot programme, part of the government key project, brought  support to the development and testing of innovative technologies and logistics solutions. The funding was coordinated by South Ostrobothnia Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment. The three-year pilot programme was launched in 2016 and ended 2018.

What is nutrient recycling?

The recycling of agricultural nutrients means the processing of manure, water treatment sludge and other side products of agriculture in order to recycle and utilise the beneficial nutrients they contain – particularly phosphorus and nitrogen – as fertiliser, for instance.

See also

Info cards on nutrient recycling

Infographics on nutrient recycling in Finland (2017)

Further information
Mikko Rahtola, Project Coordinator
Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke)
tel. +358 29 532 4701, firstname.lastname@luke.fi

Anna Toppari, Specialist
Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke)
tel. +358 29 532 5828, firstname.lastname@luke.fi