DARD to set up an expert group on alternative use of manures

The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) has announced the establishment of an expert group on alternative use of manures.

Over the last 12 months, in the lead up to the issue of the Action Programme on the Nitrates Directive, DARD and the Department of the Environment (DOE) made extensive use of an "experts group", comprising its own scientists and technical staff and experts from the industry, at both production level and processing level.

Their work, they say, has provided considerable support to both Departments in thinking through the scientific, agronomic and meteorological data that underpins the Action Programme. Part of this work also focussed on reviewing alternative methods to land spreading for the disposal of slurry.

The DARD said that because of the urgency felt by the industry to try and find alternative methods of disposal, it was intending to continue with an expert group, “perhaps smaller and more focused, with a clear remit to identify on a worldwide basis the latest approaches to slurry disposal, and also to explore the options for any specific R&D projects to be undertaken locally”.

“The key priorities would be to examine options, in particular for poultry, chicken and pig manure, which pose the highest risks in terms of land spreading beyond home farms,” the Department added..

The DARD said it intends to convene the expert group within a matter of weeks “to explore all options”, and will ask the group to report to both Departments and the industry generally at regular intervals, with a completion date of September 30.

(MB)