Compost goes commercial
Britain's farmers could find out how to turn a waste product into a profitable business if they visit the composting area of the Royal Show, which is being held at the Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire from Sunday 29 June - Wednesday 2 July.
Composting is attracting great interest among British farmers - and among local councils, who see it as a potential method of disposing of thousands of tonnes of green and garden waste which otherwise has to be disposed of - at increasing expense - in landfill sites.
For farmers, composting has several benefits, offering the opportunity to create a diversified source of income and to make a fertilizer that could benefit their own crops and reduce the amount of recycleable waste sent to landfill sites.
Simon Jones, of the On Farm Composting Network, is championing the idea, as well as coordinating field research which highlights the potential nutritive value of processes green manures, which the Network's own search has shown can increase crop yields while reducing nitrogen applications.
If the idea takes off Mr Jones sees composting as a diversified enterprise which could breath fresh life into redundant farm buildings, increase employment and provide fresh income for a farm, as well as benefiting the wider environment:
"Trials on plots of winter wheat show that it is possible to increase crop yields by 20% - 25%, while reducing applications of inorganic fertilizers by some 20% by applying composed green waste as a manure. We replicated the trials on difficult, sandy soils with very little organic matter and the benefits were still clear."
He added: "In a farm situation the waste might be spread using a muck or lime spreader, and can be ploughed in or left as a surface mulch. Obviously the benefits to the crop need to be measured against the costs of processing the material, but the range of other saleable products which can be produced should be included in the equation".
This sort of agronomic research is just one strand of the Network's operations - it also provides advice on the business and legislative aspects of composting, and its presence will be central to the Royal Show exhibit:
"We will be discussing both the practicalities and economics of the issue, as well as providing practical guidance to farmers so they can assess whether they can get involved in it".
As processing waste - especially imported waste - may count as a change of use of the facilities employed (farmstead; buildings etc) this includes issues like whether the facilities used become rateable. Processing itself may require a licence, so liaison with bodies like the Environment Agency and its equivalents will be highlighted.
