Survey on compost application in agriculture
An inventory regarding the application of compost and the demands on quality compost was carried out for the German Northsea Region. The general questionnaire developed by the SOILCOM team was adjusted to German conditions and transformed into an on-line usable tool. The questionnaire was published in July 2020 via an agricultural blog (https://www.bauerwilli.com/umfrage-kompost-in-der-landwirtschaft/). Furthermore it was distributed to various agricultural chambers. All answers were structured and available now as excel-based data base.
The evaluation started for 133 answers provided by German growers, most of them from the NSR region. In result, the most compost currently applied is made from municipal feedstock’s - from green waste or a mixture of green and biobin waste. Only 25% of the growers use self-made composts and very few use compost made at another farm. However, about two third of the growers do not use compost at all. From the ones which use compost, the ecological farmers are dominant. They mostly either use self-made compost or green waste compost. However, most farmers are aware of benefits of compost. Dominant reason was that they are afraid of pollutants, specifically plastics.