Integrated Nutrient Management: present challenges and future opportunities

Nutrient management is now central to discussions on agricultural sustainability, as decades of intensification have often depended on mineral fertilisers applied without sufficient attention to nutrient cycles, resulting in low nutrient use efficiency, soil degradation, water pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and dependence on costly, geopolitically vulnerable inputs. In response, Integrated Nutrient Management (INM) has emerged as a more comprehensive approach, combining mineral and organic sources, leveraging soil biological processes, recovering nutrients from circular resources, and using indicators such as nutrient use efficiency and nutrient balances to guide decisions. These challenges are especially acute in the Mediterranean, where low organic matter, salinity, limited water, and climate extremes demand region-specific solutions. The course is designed to equip professionals with the knowledge and tools to apply INM through soil science, plant nutrition, microbiology, water management, circularity, and advanced research methods in a practical, interdisciplinary way.

The course aims to give participants a solid, region-specific grounding in INM—covering conceptual frameworks, nutrient cycles and performance indicators (NUE, PUE, KUE, etc.)—and to equip agricultural professionals, researchers, policymakers and practitioners with practical tools to design and implement INM strategies adapted to local farming contexts. It will examine how soil properties, organic matter and microbial communities drive nutrient dynamics and plant–microbe interactions under Mediterranean stress, and will highlight water–nutrient–climate linkages, circular use of organic resources, and advanced research methods. Learning will combine lectures, guided debates, case studies and group work to ensure applied understanding and readiness for field or policy application.