1. Nutrient utilisation

Lin Ma is professor in the Center for Agricultural Resources Research of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). He has extensive knowledge on the integrated assessment of nutrient flows in food production and consumption chains and manure management. Lin Ma initiated a research group named COFER group (Coupling of Food, Environmental impact and Resource use). The missions of this group are: (1) to generate knowledge for achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of agriculture and food systems by analyzing complex “soil-crop production-animal production-food processing-household consumption” chains, (2) to integrate the knowledge to design a sustainable and coupled crop and animal production system, and (3) to develop techniques of manure management from “housing-storage-processing-application” chain.

2. Soil quality

Dr Anne Bhogal
Principal Soil Scientist

Anne is a Principal Soil Scientist in ADAS involved in the research and development of policies on soil and nutrient management. She has a particular interest in the impact of organic amendments on soil quality, carbon storage and nutrient cycling. Recent research includes leading long-term studies investigating the impact of organic manure and crop residue returns on soil quality and carbon storage and looking at ways to maximise the benefits of cover crops. She is a FACTS qualified advisor and a Fellow of the British Society of Soil Scientists.

3. Air and water quality

Dr Karl Richards is acting co-ordinator Agricultural Climate Research Centre. He leads a team investigating nitrogen dynamics in soil, nitrate leaching and denitrification in croplands and grazed grasslands soils. His research has focused on the investigation of options to mitigate nitrogen losses from soils (such dietary manipulation, cover crops, urease/nitrification inhibitors& manure treatment); understanding landscape scale nitrogen dynamics; investigating N2/N2O partitioning in soils and aquifers. His research has encompassed soil microbial ecology and denitrification functional gene studies in soil. He is an Irish representative on the Global Research Alliance cross-cutting group. He has published over 170 peer reviewed scientific papers.

4. Treatment and processing technologies

Dr Oscar Schoumans is a senior scientist working at Wageningen University & Research in the field of environmental research related to nutrient management and in the field of circular economy related to nutrient recovery from organic waste streams and reuse in practice. He has a strong international network and has coordinated a large number of national and international programmes and projects. To date, he coordinates the H2020 project SYSTEMIC where industries and SME’s implement and demonstrate innovative systems of nutrient recovery techniques on large scale biogas plants.

5. Promoting best practice

Melissa Wilson is an associate professor and manure nutrient management specialist at the University of Minnesota with appointments in both research and extension. Her research focuses on filling knowledge gaps about manure nutrient cycling as farming practices, weather, and technologies change. She is also currently evaluating techniques for opening up the window of opportunity for manure application. Her extension program relays this information back to farmers, agricultural consultants, and regulatory officials so that they can make science-based management decisions.