Aerated buffalo slurry improves spinach plant growth and mitigates CO2 and N2O emissions from soil.

Manure management is a main strategy for mitigating gas emissions from livestock farming. In this study, a laboratory-scale experiment was set-up to identify suitable conditions to be applied in a farm-scale experiment. The liquid fraction (LF) of slurry was aerobically treated and green-house gas emission from soil was evaluated. Furthermore, the value of treated LF as fertilizer on spinach plants was also tested. Aeration of LF determined an increase of mean alkalinity due to ammonia loss. Mass fraction of heavy metal also decreased, likely for the reduction of their sol-ubility. After applied on soil, aerated LF determined lower CO2 and N2O emissions compared to untreated LF due to a reduced nitrogen load. Spinach plants fertilized with treated LF showed a lush growth and exhibited a lower heavy metal mass fraction as well as a higher content of an-tioxidants compared to plants fertilized with untreated slurry. Our results show that aeration might be an effective alternative for slurry management able to produce an eco-friendly final product with a high fertilizing value.