From fishery waste to growing organic broccoli in the year 2095

The sea food and fisheries sector produce a significant amount of nutrient-dense organic waste which can represent up to 70% of overall catch. Valorising these waste products by transforming them into bio-based fertilizers (BBFs) is part of the circular economy model for Europe which reduces waste and increases resource efficiency.

In the framework of the Innovation Action (IA) project SEA2LAND, researchers at Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech tested the performance of four newly developed bio-based fertilisers produced from fishery waste under present and future meteorological conditions in the TERRA-Ecotron.

In this Ecotron experiment, the researchers evaluated both the agronomic performance (yield and nutrient contents) and the environmental impact (nitrate leaching, N₂O & CO₂ emissions) of four BBFs in comparison to a synthetic fertilizer (SYN) in broccoli production under a historic reference and a future RCP8.5 climate scenario for Belgium.

Crop performance parameters such as element use efficiencies and yield were similar or lower for plants receiving BBFs compared to SYN in the reference climate, but similar or higher for BBFs compared to SYN in the future climate. Mechanistically, cropping systems with BBFs benefitted from enhanced soil microbial activity compared to SYN in both climates (measured as hydrolysis of fluorescein diacetate), but concurrently also had higher greenhouse gas emissions. The risk of nitrate leaching was indifferent amongst fertilizers but globally increased in the future climate with more intense dry-rain shifts.

While these results support BBFs as agronomic alternatives to SYN, further research is needed to address climate-induced yield penalties which were observed for all fertilizers (BBFs & SYN) in the future climate, and to improve nutrient use efficiencies of cropping systems under present and future meteorological conditions.

Full text: https://doi.org/10.1088/2976-601X/ae2d5

Polyglot practice abstract: https://sea2landproject.eu/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/29.SEA2LAND_PracticeAbstract_ULiege.pdf

More info: www.sea2landproject.eu | www.ecotron.uliege.be