The second problem: the digestate contains much water and therefore the solution with plant nutrients is very dilute

If this waste is applied as a fertiliser, the water surplus increases the elution of this nutrient into the bottom soil in pervious soils. In impervious soils and in less pervious soils the imbalance between water and air in the soil is deteriorated with all adverse consequences: aerobiosis restriction, reduction in the count of soil microorganisms, denitrification and escape of valuable nitrogen in the form of N2 or N-oxides into the atmosphere. Soil acidification takes place because organic substances are not mineralised under soil anaerobiosis and they putrefy at the simultaneous production of lower fatty acids. These soil processes result in a decrease in soil productivity. Currently, its probability is increasingly higher for these reasons:

1. As a consequence of global acidification the frequency of abundant precipitation is higher in Europe throughout the year.

2. As a result of rising prices of fuels, depreciation on farm machinery and human labour force farmers apply digestates or fugates in the closest proximity of a biogas plant. It causes the overirrigation of fertilised fields even though the supplied rate of nitrogen does not deviate from the required average.

The problem of an excessively high irrigation amount has generally been known since long: it occurred in Berlin and Wroclaw irrigation fields after irrigation with municipal waste water in the 19th and 20th century, in the former socialist countries after the application of agricultural and industrial waste waters and of slurry from litterless operations of animal production. Even though nobody surely casts doubt on the fertilising value of pig slurry or starch-factory effluents, total devastation of irrigated fields and almost complete loss of their potential soil productivity were quite normal phenomena (Stehlik 1988).