WP2 focuses on the general effects of BBFs on soil quality and plant growth. Currently, the WP2 participants are focusing on the development of the specific task 2.1 as its outcome is crucial for the entire course of the LEX4BIO project. T2.1 is aiming at evaluating the current and novel BBFs with the aim of selecting 15-20 promising BBFs for further testing.
Therefore, UP, UHOH and Luke set out to create an online questionnaire which was constantly refined and adapted, with input of the whole partnership.
An online survey with 21 questions was carried out in order to collect information on novel and already available BBFs. The consortium partners and, beyond the project, their colleagues and contacts, e.g. producers of BBFs, retailers, consultants, researchers and other experts were invited to share their experience with BBFs.
The main phase of the survey ran in October 2019; however, the questionnaire is still online and active (https://surveynuts.com/LEX4BIO). So far, more than 75 replies from 13 countries were received. The mentioned BBFs originate from all types of nutrient-rich side streams relevant at European, national or regional scale; and are divided in three groups, i.e. organic, organo-mineral and mineral BBFs.
The replies are nowadays subject to a thorough analysis and a ranking of the BBFs’ suitability against the most important criteria for crop production. The results serve – together with an extensive review of literature and other running projects – as important basis for the next step: the selection of the 15-20 BBFs that are going to be used by partners for all lab, greenhouse and field experiments in the project.
As people cannot wait to start with the detailed planning of their work, the final selection of BBFs is highly anticipated by everyone – and it is expected to be completed before the end of January 2020!
