You are invited to the next edition in the Climate Smart Agriculture webinar series hosted by the Californian Department of Food and Agr​iculture, the University of California - Davis, the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, the European Institute of Innovation and Technology's Climate KIC partnership, and Wageningen University and Research.

On October 26th,  from 9-11 AM  PTZ  and 6-8 PM  CET, the webinar about Alternative Manure Management will grace your computer. Conventional manure management practices have been applied widely, in the dairy and livestock production industries in California and The Netherlands. More recently significant advances have been made to capture, store, treat and utilize animal manure that are ecologically and economically sustainable, to prevent straight forward use of manure in field settings, with detrimental effects on water pollution and unacceptably high levels of nutrient enrichment.   

Throughout the supply chain, AMM practices have developed among producers-technology  providers and private industry to find new and sustainable means to use manure components as a replacement of artificial fertilizer, as one example. These varied CSA adaptation strategies of AMM are very promising and are advancing lockstep with policy making, mitigation measures in animal housing systems, in transport of manure and development of new business models for the fertilizer supply chains, apart from many technical inventions.  

The challenge is to identify and overcome the real hurdles on this path, towards considerable reduction of GHG in our animal husbandry system. In California, the CDFA authorized alternative manure management funding as part of the 2017 budget as a result of State of CA assembly bill 1613. In the Netherlands, AMM steers on manure processing and recovery of nutrients to achieve a level of effectiveness, similar to mineral NPK fertilizers produced from natural gas or fossil ores. Practices in new manure management require adequate US and EU Policies and regulations that answer to the strategy of Climate Smart Agriculture.

This webinar will bring together experts from the scientific community, policy makers and regulators and the private industry to discuss advances in AMM practices that have applicability in both CA and The Netherlands. 

Agenda and procedure

8.55 am

Opening webinar announcement CDFA.

9.00 am

Joint welcome by Cal and NL + short introduction of speakers:

• Steven Ostoja: director The USDA NRCS California Climate Hub or 
  Jan Hopmans World Food Centre on behalf of California
• Madeleine van Mansfeld: coordinator CS webinars CAL NL on behalf of Wageningen UR

9.10 am          

Perspectives policy making with regard to alternative manure management

• Views from Dr. Harm Smit, policy officer “manure and environment” at the Dutch Ministry of Economics
• Views from Nilan Watmore, environmental scientist with the CDFA for their Alternative Manure Management Program (AAMP).         

9.25 am          

Business perspectives – cutting edge practices:

• Urgencies and opportunities in California: Steve Rowe, CEO of Newtrient.
• Body of knowledge in AMM practices Netherlands: Kees Kroes, manages the project "Manure and Minerals" at LTO Noord (an agrarian entrepreneurial organisation in the Netherlands).

9.40 am          

Overview of perspectives alternative manure management as CSA solution, with focus on climate mitigation and adaptation

• Wageningen University: Dr. ir. Oscar Schoumans, Added Value Manure and Minerals coordinator at the Wageningen University Research Centre.
• UC Davis: Prof. Ruihong Zhang, Professor at the Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department at UC Davis.

9.55 am         

Moderated discussion with panel of experts

10.55 am        

Outlook webinar results and closing by Cal and NL moderators, with announcement of title and date next webinar in this series.

Registration in advance again via https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/climatesmartag/