EU stalls on strategy to curb nutrient losses

The European Commission wants to make the bloc “circular” on nutrients and curb nitrogen losses in agriculture, but a long-awaited strategy on the matter appears to hang in the balance as EU elections approach.

Nutrient losses, that is, the leakage of nutrients such as nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorous from agricultural production to the soil or the water, are a key challenge for Europe’s agrifood system.

On the one hand, fertilisers are used inefficiently if part of the nutrients they are set to introduce to crops get lost – a problem that is especially acute in the face of high fertiliser prices and struggles to move away from dependence on Russian fertilisers.

On the other, the leakage of substances like nitrogen also leads to the pollution of soils, water, and air.

In its Farm to Fork Strategy, the European Commission therefore set out a goal of reducing nutrient losses by at least 50% by 2030, which it says would bring down fertiliser use by at least 20%.

“It is possible to reduce the harmful impacts of the nitrogen cycle without putting at stake the overall objectives,” Fabien Santini, deputy head of unit in the Commission’s agricultural service (DG Agri), told a recent event in the European Parliament.

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European lawmakers see Commission’s recent communication on fertilisers as just a first step to ensuring the EU’s strategic autonomy in this sector, pushing to consider more long-term actions to support struggling farmers.

Nutrient management plan still missing

But despite EU elections set for next June, the EU executive has not tabled its long-awaited action plan for better nutrient management (INMAP), and, as Santini confirmed, has not set out a date for when it does plan to present it.

“We have no date for the publication of this document,” he said, adding that “this does not mean it is not important”.

However, stakeholders and researchers increasingly doubt whether the strategy, for which the preparatory public consultation already closed in the summer of 2022, will still come before the end of the mandate.

In a letter sent to the Commission in mid-September, 14 NGOs and several academics stressed the need to “ensure that this key component of the European Green Deal is delivered swiftly.” In the face of high nutrient losses, action is “urgent,” the signatories argued.

The worries about the nutrient action plan come as several key Green Deal files in agriculture, such as a Sustainable Food Systems Law and large parts of a promised animal welfare reform, did not feature in the Commission’s most recent working programme covering the period up until the elections.

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“Enormous losses”

Meanwhile, Wim de Vries, a professor at Wageningen University, stressed during the event that increasing the efficiency of fertiliser use is one of the main levers for better nutrient management.

“If you do not recycle nitrogen, out of 100 kilograms of nitrogen [applied as fertiliser], only 14 kilograms end up on your plate,” he explained. “There are enormous losses.”

These losses, he added, occur through food waste and harvesting losses, but notably also during the application of fertilisers.

The nitrogen that is leaked into the natural environment in various forms then has various negative effects, according to the researcher: Released as ammonia, it has a negative effect on biodiversity, while gases like nitrous oxide propagate global warming.

“Finally, water quality is also affected by nitrogen and phosphorus,” he added.

Meanwhile, Santini also stressed the “link between food waste and nutrient management,” and pointed to the Commission’s recently proposed targets on the matter.

In July, the Commission tabled a proposal that includes legally binding EU-wide targets for slashing food waste.

“This is something we should also think about,” Santini said.

[Edited by Gerardo Fortuna/Zoran Radosavljevic]

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