SuMaNu to curb nutrient loss in Baltic region

The Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) is the leading partner of the four-in-one multinational project SuMaNu (Sustainable Manure and Nutrient Management for Reduction of Nutrient Loss in the Baltic Sea Region) aimed at more sustainable use of manure and cut in loss of nutrients in the region’s agriculture.

The 2.5-year project brings together four EU-funded projects all of which concentrate on sustainable manure and nutrient management from different perspectives. The ultimate goal of the platform cooperation is to utilise nutrients more efficiently and to reduce nutrient inflow to the Baltic Sea, said a Luke press release

“Through collaboration between the projects we can achieve more impact than by working alone. We analyse and summarise the knowledge and results of the four projects and produce joint recommendations for the best practices on farms. The recommendations are also important in policy making,” said SuMaNu Coordinator Minna Sarvi from Luke.

The partners that have teamed up in the project platform consortium comprises nine member organisations of the Baltic Sea Region led by Luke, in addition to five public sector authorities taking part as associate members.

The project was officially kicked off on 23-24 October in Helsinki when the consortium gathered there to plan its implementation. Preventing nutrient loss is economically and environmentally profitable for both farmers and the societies around the Baltic Sea. For this reason, the synthesis of knowledge and recommendations are produced to benefit both targets.

One of the four participating projects in SuMaNu is the Manure Standards, also led by Luke, which works to harmonise the methods for collecting manure data in the Baltic Sea Region. “SuMaNu is a great extension to the work done in the Manure Standards: the high quality data of manure quantity and composition is a prerequisite for implementation of sustainable manure management on farms and in policies,” said Manure Standards Coordinator Sari Luostarinen from Luke.

The rest of the projects involved in SuMaNu are the Baltic Slurry Acidification Project that aims at reducing ammonia emissions and thus nitrogen losses via acidification of slurry, the GreenAgri Project which works to boost sustainable use of organic fertilisers on farms, and the BONUS PROMISE Project which promotes the use of safe fertilisers like manure and manure-based digestates.