Authors:
Anssi Ahtikoski, Mikko Moilanen and Hannu Hökkä
Book:
After Wise Use – The Future of Peatlands, Proceedings of the 13th International Peat Congress: Peatland Forestry
Keywords:
fertilisation, peatlands, pinus-sylvestris-l, return-on-investment-roi, tree-growth
Documentfile:
Ahtikoski et al. 2008: Profitability of fertilisation of Scots pine on a drained mire
Summary:
Nutrient imbalances and deficiencies have been amended with fertilisation in practical peatland forestry, but studies focusing on the financial aspects of fertilisation are few. In this study, we determined the return on investment (ROI) of fertilisation treatment in a thick-peated minerotrophic mire drained for forestry. The fer- tilisation treatments were control, PK (phosphorus-potassium) and NPK (nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium), and the annual increases in stem volume during 28 years were 2.0, 7.8 and 7.7 m3 ha-1, respectively. In the financial analyses we adopted different price combinations of pulpwood and sawlogs real stumpage prices. The results showed that PK-treatment (8.2–13.8% ROI) outperformed NPK-treatment (6.5–10.7% ROI), with fluctuating stumpage prices.