Effects of Biogas Digestate on Winter Wheat Yield, Nitrogen Balance, and Nitrous Oxide Emissions under Organic Farming Conditions

Abstract

Biogas digestate is increasingly used in organic farming to improve soil nutrient supply and sustainably increase yields. However, biogas digestate can also lead to environmentally relevant N2O emissions. The benefits, opportunities, and risks associated with the use of digestate as a fertilizer in organic farming are a subject of ongoing debate, in part due to a lack of conclusive experimental results. A field trial conducted in southern Germany examined the short-term and long-term impacts of digestate fertilization on winter wheat yield, nitrogen use efficiency, and N2O-N emissions. The four-year results from the years 2019 to 2022 are presented. Digestate was applied with a nitrogen input of up to 265 kg ha−1, with 129 kg ha−1 NH4+-N. The application of digestate resulted in a significant increase in wheat yield, with an average increase of 53% (2019) to 83% (2022) compared to the unfertilized control. It is notable that the treatment applied for the first time did not reach the yield of the long-term fertilized treatment, with a yield gap of 0.5 to 1.2 Mg ha−1 (6% to 15%). The highest N2O-N emissions (up to 3.30 kg ha−1) in the vegetation period from spring to autumn were measured in the long-term fertilized treatment. However, very high N2O-N emissions (up to 3.72 kg ha−1) also occurred in two years in winter in the unfertilized treatment. An increase in soil inorganic N stocks and N2O-N emissions was observed following the wheat harvest and subsequent tillage in all treatments. No significant differences were identified between the fertilizer treatments with regard to product-related emissions. The experimental results demonstrate that N2O-N emissions are not solely a consequence of N fertilization, but can also be attributed to tillage, post-harvest practices, and previous crops, with considerable variability depending on weather conditions. The experimental data provide comprehensive insight into the influence of cultivation, soil characteristics, and meteorological conditions on N2O-N emissions at an agricultural site in southern Germany.