This document summarizes Rodney Thompson's presentation on "The Fertigation Bible". The Fertigation Bible is a comprehensive 814-page document that describes 124 fertigation technologies. It was created by 54 contributors from institutions involved in the FERTINNOWA project, with the goal of providing practical fertigation information to European horticultural stakeholders. The document is organized into chapters covering various aspects of fertigation systems and management. Each technology is described in a standard format covering its purpose, use, operation, costs and other details. The creation of The Fertigation Bible combined two tasks in the FERTINNOWA project and involved contributions from all project members to develop the technical descriptions of technologies.

1. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research
and innovation programme under grant agreement No 689687
The Fertigation Bible
Rodney Thompson
University of Almeria

2. • 54 people contributed to the writing
• All partner institutions of FERTINNOWA
participated

3. Three parts to this presentation
1) Explanation of what is The Fertigation Bible
2) A guided tour
3) How it came into being. How we went from:
T3.4 Reference Document on state-of-the art
..…..a Reference (BREF type) document for the use of
water in fertigated crops sector will be prepared
Responsible partner: UAL,
Partners involved: PCS, PSKW, NIAB-EMR, FC, IFAPA,
TNO/WUR, PRIVA

4. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation
programme under grant agreement No 689687
What is “The Fertigation Bible”-1
1) Comprehensive body of practical information on all aspects of fertigation
2) Of the most commonly-used and promising technologies that are
commercially available or are expected to be so in the near future
3) 124 technologies are described
4) This information was prepared for the EU horticultural sector
5) For growers, advisors, students, administrators, other stakeholders…..
6) Objective was to provide practical and useful information
7) It is big: 814 pages
8) It is in English
9) It is only available on-line as a PDF file

5. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation
programme under grant agreement No 689687
What is “The Fertigation Bible”-2
10) The language is simple, in order to be easy to read and informative for
non-technical people and non-native English speakers
11) A Spanish translation was discussed, but there were large and difficult
practical issues
12) A Chinese translation is being prepared, with 35 senior researchers
currently working on the translation
13) It is popular,
 with >1,000 downloads, since its release in late March 2018
 numerous very positive comments
Please let me to congratulate you and co-
authors. I downloaded the document, it is
impressive, complete but written with a clear
and practical style, very very useful!
Daniele Massa, Italy
Thanks for sharing this very impressive
work. It seems a tremendous resource.
Alon Ben Gal, Israel

6. The components of The Fertigation Bible

7. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation
programme under grant agreement No 689687
Organisation of The Fertigation Bible
• Introductory information; Executive Summary
• Chapter 1. General Introduction
• Chapter 2. Providing water
• Chapter 3. Optimising water quality - chemical composition
• Chapter 4. Optimising water quality - particle removal
• Chapter 5. Optimising water quality - control of algae
• Chapter 6. Optimising water quality - disinfection
• Chapter 7. Fertigation equipment - irrigation
• Chapter 8. Fertigation equipment - nutrient addition
• Chapter 9. Fertigation equipment - soilless systems
• Chapter 10. Fertigation management - irrigation
• Chapter 11. Fertigation management - nutrients and salinity
• Chapter 12. Reducing environmental impact- nutrient removal and recovery

8. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation
programme under grant agreement No 689687
Organisation of each technology chapter (i.e. chapters 2–12)
Chapter X
Technology
Description
X-1
for
technology 1
Introduction Summary
Table
- Overview of
technologies
described
- This enables
comparison
between
technologies
Technology
Description
X-2
for
technology 2
Technology
Description
X-3
for
technology 3

9. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation
programme under grant agreement No 689687
Organisation of the technical descriptions (TDs)
Each technology is described in terms of:
• Purpose/aim of the technology
• Regions, crops and cropping systems where it is used
• Working principle of operation
• Operational conditions
• Cost data
• Benefits for the grower – advantages and disadvantages
• Technological, socio-economic and regulatory bottlenecks and limitations
• Techniques resulting from this technology
• Supporting systems required
• Development, i.e. if it is commercially available, if it is in a research or
development stage
• Who provides the technology

10. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation
programme under grant agreement No 689687
A guided tour of The Fertigation Bible

11. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation
programme under grant agreement No 689687
How we got from….
T3.4 Reference Document on state-of-the art
..…..a Reference (BREF type) document for the use
of water in fertigated crops sector will be prepared
Responsible partner: UAL,
Partners involved: PCS, PSKW, NIAB-EMR, FC,
IFAPA, TNO/WUR, PRIVA

12. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation
programme under grant agreement No 689687
Example of BREF type document (Best Available
Tecniques document, also known as BAT)

13. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation
programme under grant agreement No 689687
Stages in process of making FB
We combined this task (T3.4) with another (T3.2), and involved everybody
in the FERTINNOWA project
1) Task 3.2, Technology mapping, led by PCS Belgium,
 Initially, Joachim Audenaert and later, Ilse Delcour
 All FERTINNOWA members participated in preparation of draft TDs.
 The draft TDs (TRDs) were a deliverable of T3.2, and are on FN web site
2) Ilse Delcour (PCS) revised English in all 124 draft TDs; added photos etc.
3) Draft TDs allocated to chapters
4) Chapter coordinator prepared Intro & summary table and revised each TD, for:
 Balanced the contents of each TD. Some new TDs prepared, technical content and
images revised, all sections completed, formatting and language revised, ……
5) Introduction, Executive Summary, Table of Contents etc. prepared
6) Revision of contents, formatting, English (work of editors)
7) Eletheria put it all together
8) On-line release!

14. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation
programme under grant agreement No 689687
The Fertigation Bible All Stars
• The 54 members FERTINNOWA who contributed to the Technical Descriptions
• The coordinators of the chapters
 Ilse Delcour, (PCS)
 Els Berkmoes (PSKW)
 Wilfred Appelman (TNO/WUR)
 Juan José Magán (Cajamar)
 Julia Major (PRIMA)
 Miguel Giménez, Elisa Suárez (IFAPA)
 Carlos Campillo (CICYTEX)
• My fellow editors
 Ilse Delcour, (PCS)
 Eletheria Stavridou (NIAB-EMR)
 Els Berkmoes (PSKW)
• My thanks to each and every one of the people that contributed
• We showed that individuals working well together can achieve great
things

15. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation
programme under grant agreement No 689687
How do I get a copy of the Fertigation Bible?
¿Cómo obtengo una copia de la Biblia de Fertiriego?
ESPAÑOL
 Buscar: “The Fertigation Bible” en Google etc.
 Buscar: “La Biblia Fertirrigación” en Google etc.
 Entrar: “https://www.fertinnowa.com/the-fertigation-bible/”
ENGLISH
 Search for “The Fertigation Bible” in Google etc.
 Enter: “https://www.fertinnowa.com/the-fertigation-bible/”

16. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation
programme under grant agreement No 689687
Thank you for your attention
https://www.fertinnowa.com/the-fertigation-bible/
Muchas gracias por vuestra atención