The Effectiveness of Digestate Use for Fertilization in an Agricultural Cropping System

Abstract

The need to find and maximize the use of alternative sources of nutrients for plants and soil environment have been on the forefront of research in sustainable agriculture. These alternatives have to be affordable, accessible, reproduceable, and efficient to compete with established inorganic fertilizers while at the same time reduce any potential negative impacts on the environment. We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of digestate fertilization in an agricultural system over a period of three years. The digestate utilized in the study consisted of animal waste-based digestates, namely pig manure digestate, chicken manure digestate, and cow manure digestate, and were compared with synthetic nitrogen fertilizer. Every year, the digestate and the synthetic nitrogen fertilizer were split applied at the rate of 90 and 80 kg N ha−1. The soil chemical composition after three years of fertilization showed a slight decrease, significantly different nitrogen and carbon changes while phosphorus and potassium were significantly higher in the digestate treatments. The third year of digestate application showed higher grain yield than previous years and the yield from the digestate treatments were significantly different from the synthetic nitrogen fertilizer. The nitrogen use efficiency for the three years was in the range of 20–25 percent in the digestate treatments, with a strong correlation between the nitrogen use efficiency and the grain yield. There were varied results in the grain quality and straw quality in the digestate and synthetic nitrogen fertilizer with no clear trend observed. Our results showed a relatively high potential of animal waste digestates over the short to mid-term use with a positive result obtained in comparison to synthetic nitrogen fertilizer under favorable climatic conditions.

Biomass yield and biofiber properties of select industrial fiber crops in Lithuania

“…Wheat straw is usually chopped and spread on the soil as a fertilizer to maintain the amount of humus present in the soil (Arlauskienė et al., 2009). Using the biomass yield of spring wheat straw in a related study under similar climatic conditions (Lithuania) (Doyeni et al., 2021), yield of spring wheat straw was 1.79 ± 0.06 Mg ha −1 . The data is not presented in the table as we took wheat straw as reference crop.…”

Assessment of digestates prepared from maize, legumes, and their mixed culture as soil amendments: Effects on plant biomass and soil properties

“…The highest average fresh and dry AGB value was achieved in BB digestate-treated variant despite the lowest value of TN and the third highest C ox content in soil. It was reported that digestates have a higher potential over a short- to mid-term use period to positively affect plant biomass yield in comparison to synthetic nitrogen fertilizer under favorable climatic conditions ( Doyeni et al., 2021 ). However, we discovered that plant nitrogen content (%) in plant dry biomass did not correspond to the amount of nitrogen amended with the respective digestate doses to the experimental variants.…”

Nitrogen flow in livestock waste system towards an efficient circular economy in agriculture

“…Agriculture sector remains a focal point and has been included in the EU's overall policy framework to integrate crop and livestock management with different interfaces such as food production, environmental safety, waste utilization, energy generation from food and non-food crops, soil, and GHG reduction obligations. This realistic target has led to an intense drive in sustainably managing the nitrogen (N) flow in livestock farming, food production, organic and inorganic inputs to improve crop yield, productivity and with lesser effect on the soil and the environment (Doyeni et al, 2021b).…”