Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
The EU wants to replace at least some of the fertiliser it imports from Russia with products processed from “homegrown” animal dung and urine to reduce revenues going to Moscow’s war machine.
Christophe Hansen, the agriculture commissioner, told journalists that manure-based fertiliser could reduce dependency on imported chemical fertilisers, and was cheaper than artificial equivalents, which require a lot of energy to produce.
“The livestock sector can provide a positive input to the circular economy — that is domestically grown and doesn’t need to come from outside and is not based on high energy prices like gas,” he said. “We need to see the opportunities as well [as the challenges].”
Manure and food waste can also be tapped for biogas as an alternative source of energy, with the EU seeking eventually to cut all gas supplies from Russia, once its biggest supplier.
Russia has in effect continued to export its gas through fertiliser production, the EU fertiliser industry claims. Large amounts of gas are needed to produce the ammonia used in chemical fertilisers. High gas prices have also made domestic fertilisers uncompetitive, hitting jobs.
Last month the European Commission proposed tariffs on Russian fertiliser imports. But some member states are reluctant to support them because farmers would have to pay more for alternative supplies.
Russia has captured 30 per cent of the imported fertiliser market in the EU, up from 17 per cent in late 2022. Other big suppliers include Morocco and Egypt. Farmers bought 5.7mn tonnes worth €1.9bn from Russia in 2024, according to Eurostat.
The use of Renure, short for “recovered nitrogen from manure”, would cut fertiliser costs by nearly 5 per cent in livestock regions, according to a study by Dutch and Belgian academics in the journal Resources, Conservation and Recycling published by Elsevier.
Brussels has to date restricted how much manure can be spread on fields, because its high nitrogen content runs off into water courses. That encourages the growth of some algae and invasive plant species, which crowd out other plants and therefore the animals that rely on them.
The Netherlands, a small country with intensive livestock holdings, was forced by a court judgment to cut its use. Proposals to cull cattle and compulsorily purchase farms sparked a farming revolt which spread Europe-wide after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Farmers with tractors from across the continent have invaded Brussels several times, spraying manure at the police and EU buildings.
The Commission is expected this year to approve the use of Renure, which is treated to reduce its nitrogen content, after heavy Dutch government lobbying.
The Commission’s “Vision for Agriculture” paper published on Wednesday says that it would be a “win-win” for the environment and climate “through the support for the uptake of low-carbon fertilisers and recycled nutrients, such as Renure and digestate after appropriate treatment and their efficient use”.
Jessika Roswall, the environment commissioner in charge of reforming the nitrates directive that limits nitrogen emissions, told the Financial Times: “Managing nutrients more effectively is essential to make agriculture future-proof and ensure a level playing field. I am working with member states to build a majority for a balanced treatment of Renure, and I am exchanging with countries and stakeholders concerned to tackle pollution hotspots.”
Agriculture contributes more than 10 per cent of the EU’s total greenhouse gas emissions, chiefly through the release of methane by cows and other animals burping and breaking wind, and nitrous oxide from natural and artificial fertilisers.
Such agricultural emissions need to drop by 40 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030 to meet EU targets but are on course to fall only 7 per cent, says the European Environment Agency.
In some countries such as Ireland and Bulgaria emissions are higher than 2005.
The former Irish government discussed a cow cull while Denmark is taxing livestock farmers.
But Hansen said voluntary incentives were better than targets for cutting emissions. Cow diets could be changed to reduce methane output.
He also said the EU livestock herd was shrinking by around 1 per cent annually.
“I think to say bluntly, reduce, reduce a percentage by member state . . . that is not the way forward.”
“We also have the responsibility towards third countries to continue to feed the world as well . . . I do not see the farming community as part of the problem but as part of the solution.”
Green groups criticised the plans. WWF said the Commission did not “intend to step up efforts to reduce pesticide and fertiliser use, which is concerning given worsening water quality — a threat to our health — caused by agriculture and nitrogen pollution”.
It added: “If there are fewer conditions and more incentives under the Common Agricultural Policy for upholding environmental standards, then those incentives must be very well designed.”
