I was responsible for the design, initiation, supervision and development of farmers in the UK which composted municipal and industrial wastes on a variety of scales from 1000 tonnes pa to 125,000 tones per annum, for recycling by composting for use on their own land. The effect on crop production took time to build the SOM (soil organic matter) but heavy dressings did reduce drought stress, cultivation energy and crop disease, and did increase crop yield and consistency., while reducing, and in some cases eliminating purchase of manufactured fertilisers. So - this is Closing the Loop and potentially eliminating the purchase and use of manufactured N fertiliser and the energy (and CO") involved in that production. This group was set up on a Reverse Franchise basis, i.e. the franchisees owned the franchisors and it was the professionals in the centre who took the legal responsibility which enabled small farmers to co-operate on big projectswithout risk to their sovereignty over their own land.
I am now working in collaboration with NIAB (National Institute of Agricultural Botany, University of Cambridge, UK) on again looking to eliminate the purchase and use of manufactured fertilisers by using MNPs ()micro and nano plastics).
Now working on trials with NIAB (National Institute of Agricultural Botany, University of Cambridge, UK) on using MNP’s (micro and nano plastics) which contain Nitrogen nutrient with the objective of managing MNPs and using them as fertilisers instead of manufactured N which, of course, takes very significant energy in manufacture. There are also implications for managing MNP’s which do not have N in the molecule.
Д-р. Bill Butterworth