On September 10-12, 2024, the Nebraska Water Center and the United States Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) are co-hosting a conference titled Fertilizers from waste: Recovering and reusing nutrients via circular processing of agricultural residues. This conference is sponsored by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Co-operative Research Programme: Sustainable Agricultural and Food Systems and by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA-NIFA).
The Fertilizers from Waste conference will catalyze collaboration between professionals developing technology and those building the infrastructure that will support the adoption and implementation of the new fertilizer products, technologies, and processes. The conference is designed to share expertise and further advance on research of the following topics:
- Prospects and applications on nutrients recovery.
- Engineering and new fertilizer technologies.
- Environmental contamination and mineral nutrition status.
- Risk assessment and microbiology.
The Fertilizers from Waste conference includes presentations from more than fifteen experts from eight countries. Speakers and attendees are a mix of engineers, agricultural scientists, practitioners, stakeholders, such as farmers or biogas producers, and mineral and organic fertilizer producers. The conference will discuss the potential and implications of opportunities, challenges, and timeline of transitioning, partially or fully, from mineral derived fertilizers to waste derived fertilizers. The focus of the conference is to bring together innovative yet applied problem solvers in the realms of policy, engineering, sustainability, microbiology, and soil health.
The three-day conference will include presentations from experts around the globe, brainstorming and collaborative sessions, and a half-day visit to Husker Harvest Days, a unique experience for the international visitors. An overview of the conference agenda is available at the link below.
One of the United Nations' sustainable development goals is to achieve food security while transitioning into sustainable agriculture. This goal has been of utmost importance for a long time due to the persistent food shortages in certain geographical locations throughout the world. The ability to recycle nutrients is key to sustainable agricultural production, however key nutrients from land-applied manures and other agricultural residues are often lost to runoff or volatilization, devaluing these materials as a fertilizer, and contributing to environmental contamination. The recent focus on the global phosphorus shortage highlights the urgent need for creative solutions to harness and recycle these nutrients. There is growing interest in developing sustainable strategies to do this, however successful on-the-ground implementation will require close collaboration between the engineers and scientists designing the new technologies, and the policy makers designing the new institutional, economic, and legal frameworks required for adoption. In addition to the opportunity for information exchange between those currently involved in policy and those currently designing and producing new sustainable residue-based fertilizer products, this conference is structured to catalyze long-term professional working relationships between technical and policy experts.
The Fertilizers from Waste conference is open to attendance by interested faculty, professionals, and students. Space is limited at this free event. Register for this event by contacting Julia Stiles at julia.stiles@usda.gov.