HELCOM and Baltic 21 Agriculture Seminar
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
Ministry of the Environment
YARA international ASA
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Ministry of the Environment, HELCOM, Baltic 21 Agriculture Sector and Yara International ASA organized a seminar on P–recycling in Agriculture in Helsinki on 8-9 June 2009.
It is estimated that the world's easily and economically usable phosphorus reserves will last for 50-150 years. There is quite a lot of leaching of phosphorus from agricultural sources to the watercourses. This causes eutrophication. Even though the problem has been widely recognized, there is not enough information on the preventive measures. While the world's phosphorus reserves are diminishing we need to develop technology to recycle phosphorus.
The seminar discussed phosphorus recycling from different angles. The seminar was dedicated to the memory of late Professor Armi Kaila. She was a Finnish scientist whose main hypothesis was that full utilization of fertilizer phosphorus in agriculture can be guaranteed.
It is not by accident that this seminar was held in Helsinki on the coast of the Baltic Sea. The Baltic Sea is one of the most polluted seas in the world. Although a lot has been done to improve the situation, the reductions have not yet resulted in a Baltic Sea unaffected by eutrophication. We still need to do a lot on all the sectors and especially in agriculture to make sure that also our children can experience it as an important source of recreation and income.