4th edition of ManuREsource

The fourth edition of the International Conference on manure management and valorization (ManuREsource) has taken place on 27^th and 28^th November 2019. Around 200 participants gathered in Hasselt (Belgium) to demonstrate the importance of animal manure valorization in circular economy and to discuss the obstacles that are currently surrounding this transition. The ReNu2Farm project actively participated in several sessions: a poster session, a parallel presentation session and round tables.

Poster session – Day 1 and 2

The ManuREsource Conference had poster sessions on the first and second day, where UGhent and Inagro presented their posters.

Inagro presented two posters titled: i) ‘Evaluation of short term N-effect of recycling-derived fertilizers (RDFs) focussing on crop yield and N losses’, and ii) ‘Countering soil variability evaluating recycling derived fertilizers (RDFs) using a highly maneuverable trial fertilizer machine’.

The poster from UGhent was based on the on-going pot trials and N-incubation experiments to assess the blended fertilizers made from RDFs, titled ‘Assessment of tailor-made blends of recycling-derived fertilizers in pot cultivation of Spinacea olaracea’.

Parallel sessions- Day 1

The conference had many speakers who covered various topics ranging from innovations in manure processing and manure-derived products, environmental impact of manure and digestate management, fertilizing with manure products and digestate etc. Imke Harms from NMI and Inès Verleden from Inagro represented ReNu2Farm in one such session. Imke elaborated on exploring the demand for RDFs in the NWE region, whereas Inès spoke in detail about the properties of RDFs that are desirable to farmers in NWE.

Round table sessions- Day 2

The Conference also had 12 round-table conferences on day 2, each table having 2 sessions. Imke Harms from NMI and Inès Verleden from Inagro together presided a round-table discussion for ReNu2Farm. The session was called ‘End-user demands: How to make the fertilizer products they need?’ Participants from different sectors like research, industry, and policy participated in this discussion.