FERPLAY

The FERPLAY project, Multi-assessment of alternative fertilisers for promoting local sustainable value chains and clean ecosystems, aims to gather, harmonise, select and complement the knowledge on alternative fertiliser value chains and diffuse it to promote the wide-scale production and application of alternative fertilisers with best environmental, social and economic performance as well as technical and regulatory viability.

Project co-financed under the Horizon Europe Programme of the European Union, 2022 – 2025

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Fertilisation is key to feeding the growing world population, yet the most common fertilisation scheme based on conventional fertilisers poses threats to the environment (e.g. eutrophication caused by nutrient leaching) and sustainability of the EU food system (due to high dependence on fertiliser imports from third countries). Thus, among the key EU political priorities is to reduce by 20% the use of conventional fertilisers by 2030 and to decrease nutrient losses by 50%. A promising solution for this aim are alternative fertilisers produced from recovered nutrients from secondary raw materials (e.g. bio-waste, sewage sludge). However, their wide scale deployment is hindered by lack of awareness about alternative fertilisation, concerns regarding their technical viability and the disparity of legislations that creates a state of uncertainty. In this context, FER-PLAY is a comprehensive approach to gather, harmonise, select and complement the knowledge on alternative fertiliser value chains and diffuse it to promote the wide-scale production and application of alternative fertilisers with best environmental, social and economic performance as well as technical and regulatory viability. Thus, FER-PLAY employs a unique methodology for mapping the value chains, select the most promising ones and assess their impacts. FER-PLAY engages key stakeholders in co-creation of results and broadly disseminates them. The consortium gathers key players from the whole value chain: alternative fertiliser producers from all the main types of secondary raw materials (producers of digestate- 183 members, of compost- 120 members and of struvite), entities representing conventional (1.5M members), organic (100,000 members) and young (200,000 members) farmers,a Pan-European network with +100 members representing public administrations, supported by waste valorisation and agriculture research institutes, market strategists and communication experts.

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ACR+ is a supporting partner for several aspects, including:

• Data gathering: documenting alternative fertilisers value chains
• Co-creation: organising a co-creation workshop with regional authorities to discuss case studies where authorities have supported alternative fertilisers production/use (two meetings)
• Replication: drafting guidelines/policy briefs for replication, and organise capacity building events for regional authorities

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FERPLAY´ project leader is CETENMA, ASOCIACION EMPRESARIAL CENTRO TECNOLOGICO DE LA ENERGIA Y DEL MEDIO AMBIENTE DE LA REGION DE MURCIA (ES), and its project partners are:

• ACR+, ASSOCIATION OF CITIES AND REGIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (BE)
• CIC, CONSORZIO ITALIANO COMPOSTATORI (IT)
• EBA, EUROPEAN BIOGAS ASSOCIATION AISBL (BE)
• NURESYS, NUTRIENTS RECOVERY SYSTEMS (BE)
• INAGRO, PROVINCIAAL EXTERN VERZELFSTANDIGD AGENTSCHAP IN PRIVAATRECHTELIJKE VORM VZW (BE)
• CETAQUA, FUNDACION CENTRO GALLEGO DE INVESTIGACIONES DEL AGUA (ES)
• DRAXIS, DRAXIS ENVIRONMENTAL SA (EL)
• DREVEN, DREVEN SRL (BE)
• REVOLVE, REVOLVE WATER (BE)
• COLDIRETTI, CONFEDERAZIONE NAZIONALE COLDIRETTI (IT)
• NATURLAND, NATURLAND - VERBAND FUR OKOLOGISCHEN LANDBAU EV (DE)
• ASAJA, ASOCIACIÓN AGRARIA DE JÓVENES AGRICULTORES (ES)

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More information:

Jean-Benoît Bel