The NUTRI-CHECK NETwork to maximise site-specific precision in managing the nutrition of European arable crops.

Project Information

NUTRICHECK-NET

Grant agreement ID: 101086525

DOI

10.3030/101086525

Project closed

EC signature date 17 October 2022

Start date 1 January 2023

End date 31 December 2025

Funded under

• Food, Bioeconomy Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment

Total cost

€ 2 518 371,25

EU contribution

€ 2 518 371,25

Coordinated by

GEOPONIKO PANEPISTIMION ATHINON
Greece

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - NUTRICHECK-NET (The NUTRI-CHECK NETwork to maximise site-specific precisionin managing the nutrition of European arable crops.)

Reporting period: 2023-01-01 to 2024-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Europe faces huge and urgent challenges of increasing crop productivity whilst reducing use of synthetic fertilisers and nutrient losses. This proposal is to establish a self-sustaining, multi-actor, Thematic Network called “NUTRI-CHECK NET” that builds farm-level adoption of best field-specific nutrient management practices across Europe. In nine countries farmers’ Crop Nutrition Clubs (CNC) will identify and share the nature of their uncertainties about crop nutrition, their challenges and barriers to change. Decision-systems and nutrition tools (including commercial products, services, and recent research outputs) will be assembled by national experts from across Europe, including leading farmers, into a common online NUTRI-CHECK NET platform. CNCs will then evaluate effectiveness of new protocols and tools selected from the a toolbox to meet their main challenges. Thence they will co-create and adopt farm- and field specific ‘measure-to-manage’ approaches that address their crop nutrition challenge(s). Evaluations of protocols and tools by farmers and experts will address their ease of use, trustworthiness, costs, and benefits. Initial and final evaluations will be shared across the Network to define ‘best practices’, which will be demonstrated and disseminated widely, including through liaison with other relevant Thematic Networks and EIP-AGRI. The toolbox and best practices will be held accessible and improvable in perpetua on EU FarmBook. Widespread adoption of ‘measure-to-manage’ or ‘check-to-change’ approaches to crop nutrition will enhance nutrient recycling and crop productivity, whilst reducing synthetic fertiliser use and nutrient losses across Europe.

NUTRI-CHECK NET will generate significant scientific, economic, environmental and societal impacts. By engaging with all stakeholders through the Multi-Actor approach, stakeholders across the industry will be equipped with a better understanding of how to optimise an check nutrient management. Farmers and advisors will be provided with the tools required to make more-informed decisions. Not only will NUTRI-CHECK NET impact end-users directly, but the project will also act as a sound evidence base to inform policy design and implementation. By implementing the NUTRI-CHECK NET 3 step checking approach, and by providing confidence in best practices to support this implementation, NUTRI-CHECK NET will result in economic gains and consequentially improve agricultural business resilience. By promoting smart decision making to fully optimise fertiliser use and its application, NUTRI-CHECK NET will contribute to reducing nutrient losses associated with fertiliser use and nutrient recycling.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

In the first 18 months of the NUTRI-CHECK NET project, significant progress has been made across all work packages to meet the aims and objectives of the project. The main achievements of NUTRI-CHECK have been as follows:


1) Formation of nine National Expert Groups (NEGs) to embed the multi-actor approach and establishment of the NUTRI-CHECK NETwork.
2 Stakeholder engagement through surveys, interviews and workshops to understand farmers needs and the barriers to adoption of crop nutrition decision tools.
3) An inventory of Crop Nutrition Recommendation Systems, Research Projects and Available tools and services was compiled.
4) A framework for prioritisation of 50 tools for evaluation was co-created and utilised.
4) 26 Crop Nutrition Clubs have been established and members have selected tools for evaluation and demonstration.
5) The NUTRI-CHECK NET Platform has been developed and an initial version released.
6) A Communication, Dissemination and Exploitation plan has been developed and implemented.
7) Communication materials and dissemination actions have been produced and organised.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The NUTRI-CHECK NET project has performed a comprehensive review of crop nutrition recommendation systems, tools and services that aim to support nutrition decisions along with the research evidence available to support such tools and recommendations. Together with the results obtained through the stakeholder surveys, interviews and workshops, the project has ascertained what the needs, and barriers are for farmers and advisors, which prevents the adoption of such tools on-farm (D1.2). The review has compiled information that now acts as the basis for a comprehensive inventory, which seeks to showcase the most effective crop nutrition decision tools and solutions, and the prioritization framework, which involved contributions from stakeholders across the network was pivotal in generating a sub-set of 50 tools for evaluation by the CNC members (D2.2).

Compiling recommendation systems for N,P,K across nine European countries has provided a baseline understanding of the current state of play, and acts as an important knowledge base for defining improvements, which in turn will help shape policy developments later in the project. The characterization of these recommendation systems will be presented in D2.3.

A CBA will be conducted in the coming months of the project. The initial phase of the CBA has already began, through design of the surveys (T3.2) which will be utilised by CNC facilitators to obtain information covering provenance & confidence, capital costs, operational costs, cost savings/revenue generated, operational savings, as well as holistic considerations such as environmental and social costs/benefits. This CBA will consider economic feasibility and environmental benefits of the selected crop nutrition decision tools, which will create valuable insights for policy makers, researchers and practitioners. As the project progresses, the findings from the CBA will be disseminated to a broader audience, which will include targeted efforts to reach stakeholders through various channels, ensuring that widespread awareness and understanding of the benefits of such tools is generated. Additionally, the CBA will be fundamental in shaping the 20 NUTRI-CHECK NET Best Practices which will be initiated in Task 3.3 and further developed through co-creation processes with the NUTRI-CHECK NETwork members in T1.4.

NUTRI-CHECK NET 3 STEP CHECKING APPROACH