The agricultural area in the Po Valley is prone to high nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions as it is characterized by irrigated maize-based cropping systems, high amounts of nitrogen supplied, and elevated air temperature in summer. Here, two monitoring campaigns were carried out in maize fertilized with raw digestate in a randomized block design in 2016 and 2017 to test the effectiveness of the 3, 4 DMPP inhibitor Vizura^® on reducing N₂O-N emissions. Digestate was injected into 0.15 m soil depth at side-dressing (2016) and before sowing (2017). Non-steady state chambers were used to collect N₂O-N air samples under zero N fertilization (N0), digestate (D), and digestate + Vizura^® (V). Overall, emissions were significantly higher in the D treatment than in the V treatment in both 2016 and 2017. The emission factor (EF, %) of V was two and four times lower than the EF in D in 2016 and 2017, respectively. Peaks of NO₃-N generally resulted in N₂O-N emissions peaks, especially during rainfall or irrigation events. The water-filled pore space (WFPS, %) did not differ between treatments and was generally below 60%, suggesting that N₂O-N emissions were mainly due to nitrification rather than denitrification.

Reducing methane (CH₄) is a key objective to address climate change quickly. Manure management and storage play a significant role. In this context, a real-scale trial was performed to measure the ability of the commercial additive SOP LAGOON to reduce carbon-based greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from liquid manure over approximately 4 months. Gas emissions were measured at a commercial dairy farm from two slurry tanks, one treated with the abovementioned product (SL) and the other used as the untreated control (UNT). After 3 and 4 months from the first additive applications, the SL storage tank showed lower and statistically significantly different emissions concerning the UNT (up to −80% for CH₄ and −75% for CO₂, p < 0.001), confirming and showing improved results from those reported in the previous small-scale works. The pH of the UNT tank was lower than that of the SL on two dates, while the other chemical characteristics of the slurry were not affected. In this work, SOP LAGOON proved to be an effective additive to help the farmers mitigate the contribution of stored liquid manure to global CH₄ emissions, potentially improving the overall sustainability of the dairy industry.

Introducing smart and sustainable tools for climate change adaptation and mitigation is a major need to support agriculture’s productivity potential. We assessed the effects of the processed gypsum seed dressing SOP^® COCUS MAIZE+ (SCM), combined with a gradient of N fertilization rates (i.e., 0%, 70% equal to 160 kg N ha⁻¹, and 100% equal to 230 kg N ha⁻¹) in maize (Zea mays L.), on: (i) grain yield, (ii) root length density (RLD) and diameter class length (DCL), (iii) biodiversity of soil bacteria and fungi, and (iv) Greenhouse Gases (GHGs, i.e., N₂O, CO₂, and CH₄) emission. Grain yield increased with SCM by 1 Mg ha⁻¹ (+8%). The same occurred for overall RLD (+12%) and DCL of very fine, fine, and medium root classes. At anthesis, soil microbial biodiversity was not affected by treatments, suggesting earlier plant-rhizosphere interactions. Soil GHGs showed that (i) the main driver of N losses as N₂O is the N-fertilization level, and (ii) decreasing N-fertilization in maize from 100% to 70% decreased N₂O emissions by 509 mg N-N₂O m⁻² y⁻¹. Since maize grain yield under SCM with 70% N-fertilization was similar to that under Control with 100% N-fertilization, we concluded that under our experimental conditions SCM may be used for reducing N input (−30%) and N₂O emissions (−23%), while contemporarily maintaining maize yield. Hence, SCM can be considered an available tool to improve agriculture’s alignment to the United Nation Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) and to comply with Europe’s Farm to Fork strategy for reducing N-fertilizer inputs.