Manure management and soil biodiversity: Towards more sustainable food systems in the EU

Julia Köninger, Emanuele Lugato, Panos Panagos, Mrinalini Kochupillai, Alberto Orgiazzi and Maria J.I. Briones

Agricultural Systems, 2021, vol. 194, issue C

Abstract: In the European Union (EU-27) and UK, animal farming generated annually more than 1.4 billion tonnes of manure during the period 2016–2019. Of this, more than 90% is directly re-applied to soils as organic fertiliser. Manure promotes plant growth, provides nutritious food to soil organisms, adds genetic and functional diversity to soils and improves the chemical and physical soil properties. However, it can also cause pollution by introducing toxic elements (i.e., heavy metals, antibiotics, pathogens) and contribute to nutrient losses. Soil organisms play an essential role in manure transformation into the soil and the degradation of any potential toxic constitutes; however, manure management practices often neglect soil biodiversity.

Keywords: Common agricultural policy; Environmental policy; Nutrient losses; Soil organisms; Agricultural practices; Sustainability; European Union (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308521X21002043
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:agisys:v:194:y:2021:i:c:s0308521x21002043

DOI: 10.1016/j.agsy.2021.103251

Access Statistics for this article

Agricultural Systems is currently edited by J.W. Hansen, P.K. Thornton and P.B.M. Berentsen

More articles in Agricultural Systems from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().