A sharp rise in the price of mineral fertilizers has contributed to the growing popularity of their organic counterparts. At first glance, we have enough cattle manure and chicken manure. Get it right! But without observing a special algorithm of actions, its use threatens with serious fines. That could all change as early as this spring, with the entry into force of the federal animal by-products law.
New opportunities
In accordance with Russian legislation, manure and litter are classified as industrial waste of 3-5 hazard classes. Their use as fertilizers is allowed, but only under certain conditions. It is necessary to develop a waste passport, indicating the hazard class in the document, conduct an environmental review, and obtain a special license. All these expensive activities make the price of useful organics unreasonably high.
Doctor of Biological Sciences, Director of the All-Russian Research Institute of Organic Fertilizers and Peat-branch of the Federal State Budgetary Scientific Institution "Verkhnevolzhsky FANC" Sergei Lukin I am confident that the upcoming changes will eliminate the legal uncertainty in the field of manure and manure handling. Federal Law No. 14-FZ of July 2022, 248 “On livestock by-products and on amendments to certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation” comes into force on March 1. Its regulations recognize manure and manure as animal by-products that can be used to improve soil fertility.
As explains Sergey Lukin, the new law does not abolish the existing standards in the field of environmental protection, sanitary and ecological well-being of the population and veterinary medicine. However, now it is enough for legal entities, individual entrepreneurs and peasant (farm) enterprises to bring their plans to the attention of the federal executive body that exercises control functions in the field of veterinary medicine and land legislation. In a written notice, it is required to inform about the classification of manure and litter as by-products of animal husbandry, indicate the volumes, date of formation, planned terms of use or transfer to other agricultural producers.
It must be taken into account that the use and sale of animal by-products must be carried out on the basis of specifications approved by the manufacturer. They define the main characteristics, methods of processing and processing, conditions of use, control methods and safety requirements. It is unacceptable to use raw, unprocessed animal by-products.
As for enterprises that transfer or sell manure and manure to summer residents and for the needs of personal subsidiary plots, such activities are still possible. But only if these types of fertilizers, in accordance with the Federal Law of July 19, 1997 No. 109-FZ "On the Safe Handling of Pesticides and Agrochemicals", receive state registration as agrochemicals.
Sergei Lukin believes that the laws of our country are designed to bring order to the use of organic fertilizers. At the same time, state regulation is associated with the duration and high cost of most mandatory procedures. But it is impossible otherwise, because we are talking about safety for the environment, health and life of people.
From manure to phosphogypsum
According to their genesis, composition and properties, organic fertilizers can be divided into several groups: fertilizers of animal and vegetable origin, organogenic minerals, industrial and municipal waste, multicomponent fertilizers or composts.
Doctor of Biological Sciences, Head of the Laboratory of Agrochemistry of Organic, Lime Fertilizers and Chemical Melioration, All-Russian Research Institute of Agrochemistry named after D. N. Pryanishnikov Natalya Akanova notes that, first of all, cattle manure, horse and pig manure, bird droppings can be considered as a fertilizer.
For these purposes, industrial by-products are also used. For example, limestone flour obtained as a result of chemical synthesis, phosphogypsum and other phosphate residues.
Organic fertilizers include peat and so-called green manures, including various leguminous mixtures, residues from cereals and other crops. Certain types of sewage sludge that have undergone special treatment also belong to the same category.
According to Natalia AkanovaAll these types of fertilizers and composts made on their basis have a beneficial effect on soil fertility, its productivity and, ultimately, on the quality and environmental safety of the products obtained. As one of the elements of organic farming, they can be successfully used both in industrial-scale agricultural production and in personal subsidiary plots.
Doctor of Biological Sciences, Head of the Laboratory of Agrochemistry, Institute of Soil Science and Agrochemistry, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladimir Yakimenko also highlights a number of positive properties of organic fertilizers. They help to improve the agrochemical and water-physical properties of the soil, provide plants with nutrients. Due to the content of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and other elements, the nutritional regime of soils of agrocenoses is significantly improved. And farmers can significantly increase their yields.
But, according to the scientist, organics also have undeniable disadvantages. The content of useful elements in such fertilizers is low, and in order to get a return, it is necessary to use them in sufficiently large doses: in tons and tens of tons per hectare. In addition, there is a risk of introducing into the soil with manure many weed seeds eaten by animals along with feed. And in some cases there is a danger of infection with helminths.
Vladimir Yakimenko advocates the use of mineral fertilizers. They are required in relatively small doses, they are more convenient to deliver to the field and apply to the soil, and the efficiency is much higher as a result. At the same time, organic matter can be introduced in the form of plant residues. For example, to sow a field with herbs, to plow the grown biomass, and now fertilizers are already in the ground.
Responsive culture
Research confirms that organic fertilizers have a comprehensive positive impact on agronomically important soil properties. They make it possible to return to the cycle of biogenic elements in agriculture substances that are alienated with each new harvest.
Sergei Lukin notes that as a result of mechanical processing of potato fields, intensive mineralization of soil organic matter occurs. And it must be compensated by the introduction of manure, manure, compost, plant residues; plowing of green mass of green manure and legume crops.
In a ton of bedding cattle manure, the proportion of NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium) is about 13 kilograms, bedless pig manure - 8, bedding bird droppings - 40. In addition, livestock by-products contain organic matter and calcium, magnesium, and sulfur necessary for plants , trace elements.
When used correctly, a ton of manure provides an increase in potato yield in the amount of 100-120 kilograms per hectare, and taking into account the aftereffect, in the second and third years, up to 200-250 kilograms. In the case of using bird droppings, the yield of tubers increases by 2-2,5 times.
The All-Russian Research Institute of Agrochemistry named after D. N. Pryanishnikov has the results of a large network of experiments with fertilizers on vegetable crops in different regions of Russia. As told Natalya Akanova, in those areas where organic fertilizers were applied, the maximum yield was obtained.
If we talk about potatoes, it responds positively to all fertilizers, including organic ones. The ratio of nutrients in them exactly corresponds to the biological characteristics of this culture. A good response of potatoes to manure application can be observed on all types of soils. Where organic matter is used, the crop is less affected by scab, the crop is of better quality and stored longer. However, the best results were recorded in the fields where organic fertilizers are applied in combination with mineral fertilizers. It is this campaign that guarantees the plants a more balanced diet.
Natalya Akanova insists on the relevance of the long-known "rule of four", from which it follows that the methods, terms, doses of application and types of fertilizers are of paramount importance. If it is observed exactly, an excellent result will not be long in coming.
The economy intervened
In recent years, the practice of using organic fertilizers for potatoes in our country has significantly decreased. Director of the All-Russian Research Institute of Organic Fertilizers and Peat-branch of the Federal State Budgetary Scientific Institution "Verkhnevolzhsky FANC" Sergei Lukin cited statistics. If in 1990, per hectare of potatoes, agricultural organizations used 34 tons of organic and 265 kilograms of the active substance of mineral fertilizers, then in 2021 - 2,3 tons and 472 kilograms, respectively. That is, the share of organic matter in the total intake of nutrients with fertilizers for potatoes decreased from 64 to 6 percent.
One of the reasons is the reduction in the number of livestock and, as a result, the output of manure. Even taking into account the fact that the livestock industry is actively developing, the previous number of livestock is still very far away.
The quality of organic fertilizers has also changed. Now, about 70 percent of manure and manure is produced without litter and includes only 5-14 percent of dry matter. The volume of by-products of the industry is increasing, and the concentration of useful substances in their composition is decreasing. Under these conditions, according to Sergei Lukin, organics are best used for potato predecessors: annual grasses, winter cereals, green manure crops.
Vladimir Yakimenko recalls that even in Soviet times, the use of manure as a fertilizer was considered beneficial if it was necessary to drive no more than 5-10 kilometers from the farm to the field. Otherwise, transportation costs reduce profits to zero. In modern conditions, due to high prices for diesel fuel, the introduction of organic matter into the fields is often not economically feasible. As a result, you can get a harvest that will turn out to be “golden” in terms of costs.
Diversified agricultural holdings manage to maintain the profitability of production when using organic matter. But such farms in our country, unlike the period before the 1990s, not so much.
Sergei Lukin refers to positive examples of the work of agricultural enterprises in the Belgorod and Nizhny Novgorod regions. Owning poultry farms and growing crops, they successfully use manure as fertilizer in their own fields. And in the Vladimir region, where a local poultry farm transfers litter to other agricultural producers free of charge, farmers transport it 30-40 kilometers to their farms without significant damage to the budget.
Prospection
The very adoption of Federal Law No. 248 confirms that the Russian organic fertilizer market will continue to develop. But their main consumers can still be horticultural, summer cottages and private farmsteads.
Head of the Laboratory of Agrochemistry, Institute of Soil Science and Agrochemistry, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladimir Yakimenko believes that if various types of organic fertilizers prepared, dried and laid out in small packages begin to be sold in large quantities, the demand from summer residents, gardeners and private household plots will be stable. But in the case of large farms cultivating thousands of hectares of land, organics have practically no future. From the point of view of agrochemistry, for soil fertility, such fertilizers are good. But in a market economy, their use is not in the interests of the agricultural business.
They hold a different opinion Natalya Akanova и Sergei Lukinwho hope for a speedy resumption of the State Comprehensive Program for Improving Soil Fertility in Russia. By decision of the authorities, it was not extended after 2020, which negatively affects the entire domestic crop industry.
According to scientists, without organic fertilizers it is impossible to restore the fertility of millions of hectares of farmland throughout the country and guarantee high yields for years to come. And the key to successful work in this area should be the most powerful and reliable farming system - organomineral.
Irina Berg