This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 689687

The Fertigation Bible

Rodney Thompson

University of Almeria

• 54 people contributed to the writing

• All partner institutions of FERTINNOWA participated

Three parts to this presentation

1) Explanation of what is The Fertigation Bible

2) A guided tour

3) How it came into being. How we went from:

T3.4 Reference Document on state-of-the art..…..a Reference (BREF type) document for the use of water in fertigated crops sector will be prepared Responsible partner: UAL, Partners involved: PCS, PSKW, NIAB-EMR, FC, IFAPA, TNO/WUR, PRIVA

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 689687

What is “The Fertigation Bible”-11) Comprehensive body of practical information on all aspects of fertigation

2) Of the most commonly-used and promising technologies that are commercially available or are expected to be so in the near future

3) 124 technologies are described

4) This information was prepared for the EU horticultural sector

5) For growers, advisors, students, administrators, other stakeholders…..

6) Objective was to provide practical and useful information

7) It is big: 814 pages

8) It is in English

9) It is only available on-line as a PDF file

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 689687

What is “The Fertigation Bible”-210) The language is simple, in order to be easy to read and informative for

non-technical people and non-native English speakers

11) A Spanish translation was discussed, but there were large and difficult practical issues

12) A Chinese translation is being prepared, with 35 senior researchers currently working on the translation

13) It is popular,

with >1,000 downloads, since its release in late March 2018

numerous very positive comments

Please let me to congratulate you and co-authors. I downloaded the document, it is impressive, complete but written with a clear and practical style, very very useful!Daniele Massa, Italy

Thanks for sharing this very impressive work. It seems a tremendous resource.Alon Ben Gal, Israel

The components of The Fertigation Bible

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 689687

Organisation of The Fertigation Bible

• Introductory information; Executive Summary

• Chapter 1. General Introduction

• Chapter 2. Providing water

• Chapter 3. Optimising water quality - chemical composition

• Chapter 4. Optimising water quality - particle removal

• Chapter 5. Optimising water quality - control of algae

• Chapter 6. Optimising water quality - disinfection

• Chapter 7. Fertigation equipment - irrigation

• Chapter 8. Fertigation equipment - nutrient addition

• Chapter 9. Fertigation equipment - soilless systems

• Chapter 10. Fertigation management - irrigation

• Chapter 11. Fertigation management - nutrients and salinity

• Chapter 12. Reducing environmental impact- nutrient removal and recovery

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 689687

Organisation of each technology chapter (i.e. chapters 2–12)

Chapter X

Technology Description X-1for technology 1

Introduction Summary Table- Overview of technologies described- This enables comparison between technologies

Technology Description X-2for technology 2

Technology Description X-3for technology 3

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 689687

Organisation of the technical descriptions (TDs)

Each technology is described in terms of: • Purpose/aim of the technology

• Regions, crops and cropping systems where it is used

• Working principle of operation

• Operational conditions

• Cost data

• Benefits for the grower – advantages and disadvantages

• Technological, socio-economic and regulatory bottlenecks and limitations

• Techniques resulting from this technology

• Supporting systems required

• Development, i.e. if it is commercially available, if it is in a research or development stage

• Who provides the technology

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 689687

A guided tour of The Fertigation Bible

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 689687

How we got from….

T3.4 Reference Document on state-of-the art..…..a Reference (BREF type) document for the use of water in fertigated crops sector will be preparedResponsible partner: UAL, Partners involved: PCS, PSKW, NIAB-EMR, FC, IFAPA, TNO/WUR, PRIVA

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 689687

Example of BREF type document (Best AvailableTecniques document, also known as BAT)

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 689687

Stages in process of making FBWe combined this task (T3.4) with another (T3.2), and involved everybody in the FERTINNOWA project

1) Task 3.2, Technology mapping, led by PCS Belgium,

Initially, Joachim Audenaert and later, Ilse Delcour

All FERTINNOWA members participated in preparation of draft TDs.

The draft TDs (TRDs) were a deliverable of T3.2, and are on FN web site

2) Ilse Delcour (PCS) revised English in all 124 draft TDs; added photos etc.

3) Draft TDs allocated to chapters

4) Chapter coordinator prepared Intro & summary table and revised each TD, for:

Balanced the contents of each TD. Some new TDs prepared, technical content and images revised, all sections completed, formatting and language revised, ……

5) Introduction, Executive Summary, Table of Contents etc. prepared

6) Revision of contents, formatting, English (work of editors)

7) Eletheria put it all together

8) On-line release!

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 689687

The Fertigation Bible All Stars• The 54 members FERTINNOWA who contributed to the Technical Descriptions

• The coordinators of the chapters

Ilse Delcour, (PCS)

Els Berkmoes (PSKW)

Wilfred Appelman (TNO/WUR)

Juan José Magán (Cajamar)

Julia Major (PRIMA)

Miguel Giménez, Elisa Suárez (IFAPA)

Carlos Campillo (CICYTEX)

• My fellow editors

Ilse Delcour, (PCS)

Eletheria Stavridou (NIAB-EMR)

Els Berkmoes (PSKW)

• My thanks to each and every one of the people that contributed• We showed that individuals working well together can achieve great

things

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 689687

How do I get a copy of the Fertigation Bible? ¿Cómo obtengo una copia de la Biblia de Fertiriego?

ESPAÑOL

Buscar: “The Fertigation Bible” en Google etc.

Buscar: “La Biblia Fertirrigación” en Google etc.

Entrar: “https://www.fertinnowa.com/the-fertigation-bible/”

ENGLISH

Search for “The Fertigation Bible” in Google etc.

Enter: “https://www.fertinnowa.com/the-fertigation-bible/”

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 689687

Thank you for your attention

https://www.fertinnowa.com/the-fertigation-bible/

Muchas gracias por vuestra atención