A WOODSTOCK farmer is proving that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

For the second year running, James Price, 34, has been using fertiliser made from West Oxfordshire residents’ food waste to grow his crops.

He buys the nutrient-rich liquid, called digestate, worth £7 a tonne, from the composting site in Cassington which processes all leftovers collected in the district.

And he says it is so effective in nourishing crops that it has ensured he will be able to harvest oilseed rape this year, despite the poor weather in recent months.

Mr Price, who grew up on Perdiswell Farm, off Shipton Road, and took over its running in 2005, said: “The digestate has more nutrients and is a more effective fertiliser.

“The conditions of last autumn made it hard to establish crops and, for us, the digestate made the difference between having a crop and not.

“It’s great to be able to use a fertiliser that has been produced locally, made up from food waste that would otherwise have gone to landfill.”

Mr Price, who was the Farmers’ Weekly Young Farmer of the Year in 2009, is such a fan of the fertiliser that he is now singing its praises.

He is one of 10 farmers who use the digestate produced at Cassington by Agrivert, which has its headquarters in Radford, near Enstone.

The Cassington plant treats the waste to turn it into digestate, with gases released during the process used to generate electricity.

It produces enough fertiliser to treat 1,000 hectares of farmland each year and generates enough electricity to power 4,000 homes a day.

From April 2012 to March 2013, 3,600 tonnes of food waste was recycled from West Oxfordshire households.

The district council and Agrivert have been running tours of the Cassington plant for interested parties, such as Community Action Groups and parish councils, with Mr Price attending to explain how he uses the digestate.

Garden waste collected by the council is recycled at Agrivert’s Showell Farm composting site, near Heythrop, with the material also sold for agricultural use as a fertiliser.

The council is staging a series of roadshows to encourage more people to recycle food waste, where free compostable food waste caddy liners will be available.

They all run from 10am to 2pm and take place today in Chipping Norton Market Square; tomorrow at the Sainsbury’s supermarket in Witan Way, Witney; on Thursday, June 20, at the Co-operative supermarket in Black Bourton Road, Carterton; and on Saturday, June 29, at Witney Farmers’ Market in the town centre.