The event held on Tuesday, November 25, 2025, was a dynamic, interactive high-level policy webinar, co-hosted by the Forum for the Future of Agriculture, and two European projects, NutriBudget and ReNu2Cycle. It brought together experts and policymakers to explore how the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and circular economy frameworks can better support the uptake of both sustainable nutrient management practices and nutrient recycling in European agriculture.

Introduction

Moderator Margherita Genua, Project Manager at the RISE Foundation, set the scene for the session, structured in two parts: nutrient management under the CAP, led by NutriBudget, followed by nutrient recovery within the Circular Economy Act, led by ReNu2Cycle. Nutrient management and recovery are key issues for both environmental goals and long-term farm resilience, she said.

Keynote – Linking economic and environmental farm goals

Tassos Haniotis, Special Advisor for Sustainable Productivity at the Forum for the Future of Agriculture and Senior Guest Research Scholar with IIASA, set the broader market and policy context.

Agricultural prices have stabilised at a historically high level due to three major shocks: COVID-19, energy pressures in 2021, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. These shocks result in both high input and food prices, creating “a unique situation that demands a serious push towards productivity growth”. Growth must be sustainable, combining economic and environmental performance. Trade uncertainty and “an attack on science and climate change” add to the challenges, he said.

Policymakers have strong leverage through land and soil management, which integrates emissions, biodiversity and water dimensions at farm level. He stressed the importance of solid science and called for a limited set of meaningful indicators based on existing tools such as the LUCAS land-use survey and the evolution of the Farm Sustainability Data Network.

Farmers, he said, do not separate economic from environmental decisions. “The amount of nutrient applied, when and how it is applied, and the resulting yields” are part of a single decision framework. Policy should reflect this by integrating economic and environmental objectives.

Panel 1 – CAP and nutrient management

Moderated by Ludwig Hermann, Senior Researcher and Advisor, PROMAN, and Ms Genua, the panel delved deeper into the CAP with four experts who “all deal with nutrients – one regulates nutrients, one uses nutrients, one sells nutrients, and one does research into nutrients.”

Impact of the current and future CAPs

Stephanos Kirkagaslis, Policy Officer for Soil Nutrients and Water Resilience, DG AGRI, outlined the CAP’s current and future contributions to sustainable nutrient management.

Current CAP instruments include:  conditionality (SMRs & GAECs);  farm advisory services;  eco-schemes; agri-environment-climate commitments;  rural development interventions;  investments; the CAP network and EIP-AGRI; and digital tools. He also noted key regulatory developments: the Soil Monitoring Law, the RENURE proposal, and the ongoing evaluation of the Nitrates Directive.

Turning to the future CAP, still being worked through, Mr Kirkagaslis cautioned: “Whatever I say from now on is very much under discussion… it’s not certain.”

Funding for agriculture would sit within a broader fund covering cohesion, regional policy, fisheries, defence and security. Of this, €300 billion is ring-fenced for farmers, with potential national top-ups. Conditionality would become “farm stewardship”, combining statutory requirements with protective practices adapted by Member States. Voluntary schemes would continue via agri-environment-climate actions.

Member States already carry substantial responsibility for designing interventions based on their SWOT analyses, and this will continue. The major challenge, he said, is farmer uptake rather than policy design: “I’m not so sure that any farmer will jeopardise their future income to use a circular-based fertiliser without anybody convincing them that they will have the same amount of yield.”

Concerns about new structure

Ana Rocha, Policy Director for Agri and Forestry Policies at the European Landowners’ Organization, highlighted concerns about moving agriculture into a wider, more complex governance framework. Will ring-fencing of funds remain robust during negotiations, she asked. Is re-nationalisation a risk? There will be less money overall: “A wider basket with fewer eggs,” as Mr Hermann framed it.

While the toolbox looks similar, it is unlikely to be so in practice, said Ms Rocha. Farmers already face economic strain, she said, and policy must remain workable on the ground.

Policy needs for practical uptake

Panellists emphasised gaps between existing policies and farmers’ practical needs: workable incentives, clear guidance, and confidence that new practices will not jeopardise yields.

Tiffanie Stephani, Vice-President for European Government Relations at Yara International, said digital tools, such as satellite-based fertilisation support, could improve nutrient-use efficiency by around 10% without added burden. Uptake could be increased through trust-building, certification, affordability, and clear indicators linking sustainability pillars. “There is a real opportunity to further optimise the use of nutrients,” she said.

NutriBudget’s contribution

Gerard Ros, Senior Research Associate at Wageningen University and data scientist at the Nutrient Management Institute, described the challenge of creating indicators that are clear, scientifically robust, farmer-friendly, and adaptable to local conditions. Soil health and nutrient indicators serve multiple soil functions, making simple thresholds inadequate. NutriBudget links carbon and nutrient budgets to local environmental thresholds via data-driven modelling – but uptake depends on turning scientific insights into usable tools.

“I pass my challenge back to the industry: we have the algorithms, we have models to quantify the impacts, to make it site specific – but how can we actually bring that knowledge to farm level and into decision-support tools or guidelines across Europe?” he said

Discussion among the moderators and panellists returned repeatedly to the issues of uptake and of the need for effective indicators. Ambitious targets or sophisticated indicators matter little if farmers cannot confidently adopt the underlying practices.

Panel 2 – Nutrient recovery under the Circular Economy Act

The second session, introduced by Hans Ryckebusch, Communications Manager, IMPACT, took a deep dive into nutrient recovery and use, and the potential of Europe’s Circular Economy Act.

He invited Mari Chitashvili, Legal Researcher at IZES gGmbH, to introduce the ReNu2Cycle project, which aims to advance nutrient recycling across Northwest Europe.

Europe imports over six million tonnes of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium fertilisers annually, leaving agriculture vulnerable. A major issue is that recycling-derived fertilisers (RDFs) fall under waste legislation, which can hinder cross-border trade. The project aims to increase use of RDFs by testing, piloting, engaging stakeholders, and developing policy and sustainability strategies for large-scale use. Its activities provide insights that inform EU and national regulatory developments.

Explaining the Circular Economy Act

Laura van Schöll, Senior Project Manager for Circular Fertiliser Legislation at NMI Agro, explained that the Act is an umbrella framework aiming to accelerate the transition to circularity by facilitating the movement of secondary materials, increasing the supply of high-quality recycled products, and addressing slow progress in the EU’s circular transition.

The Fertilising Products Regulation (FPR), dating from 2019, opened the internal market to recycled and organic materials that meet standards for safety, agronomic efficiency and conformity assessment. However, uptake remains “less than 5%, and I would say far less,” due to several barriers:

• Many materials and processes remain outside the FPR scope
• SMEs face high costs and complexity in conformity assessment
• Strong dependency on other regulations, especially the Animal By-Products Regulation and waste shipment rules, creates legal uncertainty
• Outdated guidance documents and inconsistent definitions hinder clarity
• Circularity is not prioritised in several related regulations.

“Parallel to the FPR, we have national legislations, and these are the regulations that most products are traded under at the moment,” she said. Mutual recognition does not apply to waste-derived fertilisers, creating a patchwork that limits cross-border trade – an “un-level playing field which hinders investments, innovations and technologies.”

Ms van Schöll summarised a set of suggested amendments, including:

• Harmonising national end-of-waste criteria, which allow waste to become a product
• Aligning the FPR with waste shipment rules
• Extending mutual recognition principles to recycled fertilisers, updating the Nitrates Directive and the Animal By-Products Regulation
• Harmonising terminology, and ensuring direct contact points for regulatory clarification.

Interactive feedback

The online attendees joined in a dynamic Q and A session in which they emphasised the importance of a viable business case, better incentives, clearer regulatory frameworks, harmonisation and the need to strengthen trust in recycled fertilisers.

Closing reflections

Professor Erik Meers, Department of Green Chemistry and Technology at Ghent University, concluded that nutrient recycling is a “budding” market. The legislative environment remains conservative and fragmented, and clearer frameworks and a stronger business case are needed. Technological validity must be matched by commercial viability.

Peer-to-peer experience will be crucial for uptake. “Their benefits need to be proven at length and repeatedly… not only by science, but also by peers.” However, he noted ongoing collaboration across EU projects through the European Sustainable Nutrient Initiative (ESNI).

Thanking the attendees, Hans Ryckebusch closed by highlighting future webinars in this developing series.