Cow Manure Transformed Into Biodegradable Mulch Film - 30% Fertilizer Reduction Still Maintains Yield, While Improving Soil and Reducing Pollution

China’s agriculture has long faced three major problems: excessive chemical fertilizer application, residual mulch film pollution, and low utilization rates of livestock and poultry manure. Excessive fertilizer input leads to soil acidification and compaction, and nutrient use efficiency continues to decline. Traditional polyethylene (PE) mulch film is difficult to degrade, and its year-by-year accumulation forms microplastic pollution, damaging soil microbial communities and arable land health. At the same time, livestock waste such as cow manure is large in volume and widely distributed, but its resource utilization pathways are limited, and crop-livestock cycling is not smooth. The green transformation of agriculture urgently needs integrated technologies that simultaneously ensure stable yields, reduce fertilizer use, reduce plastic pollution, and improve soil fertility.

Recently, Yong HOU and others at China Agricultural University published a research paper titled “Manure-based slurry film promotes reduced fertilizer input through microbially-mediated nutrient activation mechanism and its life cycle assessment” in ENGINEERING Agriculture (DOI: 10.15302/J-FASE-2026671). Based on field experiments and life cycle assessment of using manure-based slurry film (MSF) to replace traditional PE mulch film for growing silage maize, the study revealed the core mechanism by which MSF activates nutrients through regulating soil microbial communities, maintains yield under a 30% fertilizer reduction, and achieves significant yield increases under a 15% reduction. It also clarified the environmental impact characteristics and green optimization directions of MSF.

Existing technologies for improving fertilizer use efficiency each have limitations: fertilizer synergists are costly and may affect soil microorganisms; deep fertilizer application equipment and labor inputs are large, making large-scale promotion difficult; combined organic-inorganic application has good effects but high application costs for farmers and insufficient practicality. Although biodegradable mulch film can alleviate residual film pollution, it generally suffers from low cost-effectiveness, poor stability, and unclear life-cycle environmental benefits. At the same time, there is a lack of efficient mechanisms that coordinate manure resource utilization, fertilizer reduction, and soil improvement, and there are still bottlenecks in connecting existing technologies with industry.