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Viability of rock dusts and municipal composts for use in agriculture. Extract from "Discussion and Conclusion", from the report "Rockdust and Mineralised Compost" prepared by Scottish Agricultural Colleges, Ayr. 1998. The Scottish Agricultural College, funded by Perth & Kinross Council, Scottish Natural Heritage, Scottish Enterprise Tayside and Scottish Environment Protection Agency, 1995 - 1998, investigated claims regarding soil and compost remineralisation with rock dusts. They researched the viability of rock dusts and municipal composts for use in Agriculture, achieving convincing results. "Overall, the use of rock dust should be further developed to exploit the attributes demonstrated in this report. The features of the use of rock dust are of potential value in a wide range of environments including agriculture, forestry and habitat preservation. By using rock dusts in sites in proximity to environmentally sensitive areas the risks of agriculture or other commercial land-use having an effect on the target area may be reduced. Results indicating that plant assimilation may be enhanced by the use of rock dust suggest that either total yield/output may be increased or, equally, the use of artificial inputs, such as chemical fertilisers, may be reduced to achieve the same net result. The overall agricultural philosophy of reducing inputs to achieve sustainable agricultural practice is tending to move the industry in this direction and the use of rock dust may in future become an important component of fertiliser and soil management regimes. The use of rockdust as a compost feedstock has demonstrable value for improving quality of compost and so permitting evolution of the industry from a waste management sector to a manufacturing process for valuable products. |