The COMIFER’s organic waste products group (PRO) was established in 2009 and follows the Recycling in Agriculture of non-Agricultural Products (RAPONA) expanding its activity to all organic waste products. It brings together about thirty members, who come from very different backgrounds: Technical Institutes, Research, Ministries of Agriculture and Environment and related agencies (ADEME …), Chambers of Agriculture, waste recovery missions, analysis laboratories, organic amendment producers, Fertilizer Industry, Agribusiness, Agricultural Education …
Although the topics discussed by the group overlap those of other COMIFER groups (nitrogen and sulfur groups, PK group, Liming group), its creation responds to specific concerns and expectation of agricultural recycling of organic waste products: Inventory and deposit, types and characterization, agronomic value, safety, conditions of use and experimentation, regulatory and legal issues.
The PRO Group is first and foremost be a place of dissemination and sharing of achievements and results of studies and research on PRO but also a place for discussion about different issues related to agricultural recycling of PRO. Most of the meetings since its inception have been dedicated to the presentation of projects (CASDAR, ANR …), the main experimental devices (SOERE …) concerning PRO recycling. Agency players in this field (waste mission network APCA …), regulatory aspects (ANSES, Agriculture and Environment Ministries).
The PRO group also aims to contribute to better knowledge dissemination. Since its establishment in 2009, it has been the co-organizer of a COMIFER- Academy of Agriculture symposium on “The use of organic products to fertilize crops and soil amendment in Sustainable Agriculture”, held in Paris on March 17 2009, which brought together 150 participants. It plans to make basic French reference documents (extension materials, studies…) on PRO agricultural recyclying available on the COMIFER Site, based on the observation that there are many publications at the regional level but little is known nationally. It would also like to contribute to the dissemination of information from different CASDAR projects on the value of PRO.
Thus, a project on PRO nomenclature, stemming from the CASDAR ResauPRO project, is being validated by the PRO group and will be available on the COMIFER website.
The group is facilitated by Nathalie DAMAY (LDAR), Emmanuel DECHEZELLES (ACTA) and Alain BOUTHIER (ARVALIS).
You can download the minutes of the meeting and presentation files in the Members area.