14th Workshop on Fertilisation for Sustainable Agriculture, Fertiliser sector: CAP and Environment took place at the Technical School of Agricultural, Food and Biosystems Engineering of the Polytechnic University of Madrid
- The central theme of the Workshop of the Fertiberia Chair of Agri-environmental Studies, which was held at the Technical School of Agricultural, Food and Biosystems Engineering of the Polytechnic University of Madrid, was the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union, which is implemented in the National Strategic Plan and is based on Law 30/2022, and more specifically, the analysis of those matters that are most closely related to fertilisation.
A meeting for debate and reflection that was inaugurated by the Director General of Agricultural Productions and Markets of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPA), Esperanza Orellana, the CEO of Grupo Fertiberia, Javier Goñi, and the director of the School, José Manuel Palacios. Augusto Arce, director of the Fertiberia Chair, was in charge of the closing ceremony.
During the workshop, now in its 14th edition, aspects such as the regulatory scope of the agricultural sector, the sustainable nutrition of agricultural soils, aid to farmers and the decarbonisation of the sector, among others, were addressed, with speeches by representatives of the Ministry, as well as experts from the sector and researchers.
The first speech was given by Bibiana Rodríguez, assistant deputy director of the Deputy General Directorate of Agricultural Production Means, who analysed Royal Decree 1051/2022 of 27 December, which establishes standards for sustainable nutrition in agricultural soils. Inmaculada Carceller, Deputy Director of the Deputy General Directorate for Herbaceous and Industrial Crops and Olive Oil, then spoke about Eco-schemes, i.e. voluntary actions by farmers to protect the environment for which they obtain benefits and one of the new features of the new CAP.
Carlos Cantero-Martínez, Professor of Plant Production and Forestry Science at the University of Lleida, gave a talk on 'Carbon sequestration by agricultural techniques: Can fertilisation sequester carbon?', while José Luis Gabriel Pérez, researcher at the Department of the Environment and Agronomy of the National Institute for Agronomic Research (INIA) explained the Plan for monitoring the impact of CAP measures on the carbon stock. Lastly, Khalid Akdi, general manager of Trichodex, a company in the Grupo Fertiberia portfolio, gave a talk on "Biotechnological inputs. Reality or myth."
The conference was a huge success for the fourteenth consecutive year, with an attendance that has been repeated since the establishment of the Chair in 2007. In total, more than 160 people attended the session, which could also be followed by streaming. Some of those who attended include representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the autonomous communities, national and regional research institutes, embassies and agricultural associations, as well as students, university professors and people from the agricultural sector, among others.
