HC Deb 28 June 1995 vol 262 cc693-5W
Mr. Martyn Jones

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what research is being funded into organic based fertilisers. [30543]

Mrs. Browning

The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food will be spending around £1 million in 1995–96 on research on organic-based fertilisers. The main emphasis of this work is to improve our understanding of the behaviour of the nitrogen and phosphorus in animal manures and to develop practical methods and improved recommendations to enable farmers better to utilise the fertiliser value of manures.

The project titles, contractors and estimated costs for 1995–96 are as follows:

  • On-farm monitoring of nitrate leaching from organic rotations Elm Farm Research Centre
  • £54,000
  • Phosphorous losses to surface water following organic manure applications to agricultural land
  • ADAS
  • £36,000
  • Phosphate loss from drained clay soils receiving organic manures
  • ADAS
  • £65,000
  • Use of injectors and low trajectory spreaders
  • ADAS/Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research
  • £47,000
  • To improve guidelines on waste management practices which will minimise the short and long term risk of nitrate leaching from animal manures applied to land
  • ADAS
  • £103,000
  • Improving the conservation of nitrogen during storage of slurries and manures
  • Silsoe Research Institute
  • £65,000
  • Grassland manuring: Nitrogen loss and efficiency from use of organic manures
  • ADAS
  • £124,000
  • Nitrogen losses from organic manures
  • ADAS
  • £66,000
  • Nitrogen losses from drained clay soils receiving organic manures
  • ADAS
  • £19,000
  • Effective utilisation of animal manures in fertilising forage
  • Levington Agriculture
  • £44,000
  • Development of user-friendly systems for on-farm estimation of the available nitrogen content in solid manures and slurries
  • ADAS/Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research
  • £26,000
  • Utilisation of slurry on grazed and silage areas during the growing season
  • Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research
  • £51,000
  • Nitrate leaching from livestock manures
  • Harper Adams Agricultural College
  • £54,000
  • Improved prediction of nitrogen availability and losses following land application of organic manures
  • ADAS
  • £20,000
  • Development and evaluation of a rapid paper test strip method for determining the nitrogen supplying power of slurries and manures
  • Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research
  • £25,000
    • 695
  • Improved precision of manure and slurry application
  • ADAS
  • £20,000
  • Improved precision of manure application
  • Silsoe Research Institute
  • £65,000
  • Fate of nitrogen from organic manures
  • ADAS/Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research
  • £61,000
  • Effect of organic manures on medium-term N cycling and nitrate leaching
  • ADAS
  • £93,000

The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food is also spending about £1 million every year, in England and Wales, on a programme of research and development into economic and practical questions concerned with organic agriculture and horticulture.

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