Farmer replaces industrial fertiliser and saves hundreds per hectare

A farmer in Mynämäki, southwestern Finland, grew sugar beet without industrial fertiliser and matched yields on treated fields, saving several hundred euros per hectare, Yle reports.

Aki Laaksonen, who runs a 130-hectare farm, used animal manure from partner farms and nutrient solution from a nearby biogas plant on a roughly five-hectare trial field. He had expected the crop to yield less than on neighbouring fields treated with manufactured fertiliser.

“When the yield is the same, you can be quite satisfied with the result,” Laaksonen said.

Laaksonen is taking part in a three-year regenerative farming project run by the Central Union of Agricultural Producers and Forest Owners in the Varsinais-Suomi region. Six farms in the region are involved, along with farmers in Estonia and Latvia.

The project aims to cut the use of industrial nutrients on fields by up to a third while improving soil quality. Tero Sarkala, a field manager at the union, said the project’s findings could benefit farms across Finland. He said industrial fertilisers are convenient to use, while recycled alternatives can be difficult to obtain because the number of livestock farms has fallen.

Laaksonen joined the project because fertiliser costs had risen and he wanted to try a different approach. He already uses crop rotation, and sugar beet had not been grown on the trial field for five years.

Improving the soil takes time, Laaksonen said, with the effects of changes becoming visible only after several years. He plans to expand the fertiliser trial to more fields next spring and aims to stop using industrial fertilisers on his beet fields. He believes natural fertilisers can eventually increase yields and keep the soil in better condition.

Laaksonen’s farm also grows grain, raspberries and fava beans. Most of Finland’s sugar beet is grown in southwestern Finland, where last summer’s weather was favourable for the crop.