SOAR is a research school. In addition to the focus on PhD students, SOAR also includes graduates, postdocs and supervisors in the activities and networks. This is important because they also constitute the research environment, in which the PhD student is under education. SOAR wants to contribute to the professional discussions with a special focus on the organic food and farming systems.
The research interests of SOAR cover a wide range of subjects within organic agriculture and food systems:
The overall objective of the PhD is to study the application of organic liquid manures for organic vegetable production. The study contains fundamental aspects as root and foliar uptake of organic and organically derived nitrogen sources, and the effect of Papain on nitrogen mineralisation, as well as applied experiments evaluating the use of liquid manures under field conditions.
The research will have the following specific objectives:
Characterisation of a variety of liquid manures from both fermented and fresh plant extracts, with and without addition of Papain
Evaluation of the root and leaf uptake of various liquid manures under sterile conditions
Field trials comparing nitrogen recovery and yield from a variety of vegetables that are fertigated with a variety of liquid organic manures
Study possible non-nutritional effects of liquid organic manures (pest control and hormonal influence of the plants)
Background
The production of organic vegetables all over the world is increasing, and there is a need to develop economical and environmentally sustainable production systems. As many of these systems are dependent on irrigation, the use of liquid manures offers a unique opportunity to provide the plants with nutrients continuously during the growth cycle, and even adjusting inputs according to the immediate need. Traditional farming systems in many countries partially utilise liquid manures, and some include a protein-degrading enzyme from Papaya fruits (Papain) to accelerate mineralisation of nitrogen in the liquid manures
