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2. Boreal Region

Boreal pilot is in southwest Finland. Southwest Finland is the main crop production region in Finland, also the main catchment basin for nutrient losses to the Baltic Sea. Reduction of nutrient losses from agricultural fields is utmost important, especially that of phosphorus, for improving the quality of surface waters. Eutrophication of surface waters is the most visible consequence of phosphorus losses.

Main soil texture in southwest Finland is clay, prone for erosion, and anticipated climate change will increase erosion risk in the future. At the same time centralized animal production causes accumulation of nutrients in soils and increases potential risk for their losses to surface waters.

Figure: Share of fields with no expected P yield response (left) and proportion of clay soils in Finland (right) (Lemola et al. 2023).

Erosion control, optimizing the use of fertilizers according to crop demand, processing manure for ensuring optimal use of nutrients and novel protein sources for animal production are potential mitigation measures for minimizing nutrient losses in southwest Finland. These measures will be demonstrated and evaluated by NutriBudget and disseminated to various stakeholders.

Organisation: Natural Resources Institute Finland (LUKE)
Contact person: Kari Ylivainio