Globally, abundant agricultural wastes (AWs) are being generated each day to fulfil the increasing demands of the fast-growing population. The limited and/or improper management of the same has created an urgent need to devise strategies for their timely utilization and valorisation, for agricultural sustainability and human-food and health security. The AWs are generated from different sources including crop residue, agro-industries, livestock, and aquaculture. The main component of the crop residue and agro-industrial waste is cellulose, (the most abundant biopolymer), followed by lignin and hemicellulose (lignocellulosic biomass). The AWs and their processing are a global issue since its vast majority is currently burned or buried in soil, causing pollution of air, water and global warming. Traditionally, some crop residues have been used in combustion, animal fodder, roof thatching, composting, soil mulching, matchsticks and paper production. But lignocellulosic biomass can also serve as a sustainable source of biofuel (biodiesel, bioethanol, biogas, biohydrogen) and bioenergy in order to mitigate the fossil fuel shortage and climate change issues. Thus, valorisation of lignocellulosic residues has the potential to influence the bioeconomy by producing value-added products including biofertilizers, bio-bricks, bio-coal, bio-plastics, paper, biofuels, industrial enzymes, organic acids etc. This review encompasses circular bioeconomy based various AW management strategies, which involve 'reduction', 'reusing' and 'recycling' of AWs to boost sustainable agriculture and minimise environmental pollution.
Lady Laura Del Rio Osorio, E. Flórez-López, C. Grande-Tovar
The food sector includes several large industries such as canned food, pasta, flour, frozen products, and beverages. Those industries transform agricultural raw materials into added-value products. The fruit and vegetable industry is the largest and fastest-growing segment of the world agricultural production market, which commercialize various products such as juices, jams, and dehydrated products, followed by the cereal industry products such as chocolate, beer, and vegetable oils are produced. Similarly, the root and tuber industry produces flours and starches essential for the daily diet due to their high carbohydrate content. However, the processing of these foods generates a large amount of waste several times improperly disposed of in landfills. Due to the increase in the world’s population, the indiscriminate use of natural resources generates waste and food supply limitations due to the scarcity of resources, increasing hunger worldwide. The circular economy offers various tools for raising awareness for the recovery of waste, one of the best alternatives to mitigate the excessive consumption of raw materials and reduce waste. The loss and waste of food as a raw material offers bioactive compounds, enzymes, and nutrients that add value to the food cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. This paper systematically reviewed literature with different food loss and waste by-products as animal feed, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical products that strongly contribute to the paradigm shift to a circular economy. Additionally, this review compiles studies related to the integral recovery of by-products from the processing of fruits, vegetables, tubers, cereals, and legumes from the food industry, with the potential in SARS-CoV-2 disease and bacterial diseases treatment.
Parisa Bolouri, Robab Salami, Shaghayegh Kouhi
et al.
Essential oils (EOs) and plant extracts are sources of beneficial chemical compounds that have potential applications in medicine, food, cosmetics, and the agriculture industry. Plant medicines were the only option for preventing and treating mankind’s diseases for centuries. Therefore, plant products are fundamental sources for producing natural drugs. The extraction of the EOs is the first important step in preparing these compounds. Modern extraction methods are effective in the efficient development of these compounds. Moreover, the compounds extracted from plants have natural antimicrobial activity against many spoilage and disease-causing bacteria. Also, the use of plant compounds in cosmetics and hygiene products, in addition to their high marketability, has been helpful for many beauty problems. On the other hand, the agricultural industry has recently shifted more from conventional production systems to authenticated organic production systems, as consumers prefer products without any pesticide and herbicide residues, and certified organic products command higher prices. EOs and plant extracts can be utilized as ingredients in plant antipathogens, biopesticides, and bioherbicides for the agricultural sector. Considering the need and the importance of using EOs and plant extracts in pharmaceutical and other industries, this review paper outlines the different aspects of the applications of these compounds in various sectors.
Este estudo analisa a produção de biodiesel em Mato Grosso entre 2006 e 2024, com foco nos fatores econômicos e produtivos que sustentam o monopólio da soja como principal matéria-prima. A pesquisa se se justifica pela relevância do estado como maior produtor de soja do Brasil e pela necessidade de diversificar a matriz agroenergética, mitigando riscos econômicos e ambientais associados à dependência de uma única fonte. O Trabalho adota uma abordagem mista, com análise quantitativa fundamentada em regressão linear múltipla e métodos econométricos, como testes de multicolinearidade, heterocedasticidade e autocorrelação, além de análise qualitativa para contextualizar os achados. Os resultados indicaram que o custo de produção da soja e o aumento dos percentuais de biodiesel têm correlação positiva e significativa com a produção de biodiesel, refletindo maior eficiência produtiva e políticas públicas favoráveis. Por outro lado, o preço da saca de soja apresentou correlação negativa, sugerindo que o aumento nos custos da matéria-prima o que desestimula sua utilização. Concluiu-se que a dependência da soja como matéria-prima está profundamente enraizada em fatores econômicos e estruturais, mas estratégias de diversificação e inovação são essenciais para aumentar a resiliência e sustentabilidade do setor de biodiesel em Mato Grosso.
Groundwater recharge in mountain-front areas is a critical yet poorly constrained component of the water cycle in semiarid regions, particularly where traditional irrigation practices dominate. This study investigates the spatiotemporal dynamics of recharge induced by gravity-fed irrigation in the mountain-front of the Moroccan High Atlas, a key recharge zone for the Haouz aquifer. A simplified water balance approach, corrected for groundwater-based evapotranspiration, was applied to a 20-year dataset of irrigation diversions and remotely sensed evapotranspiration (MOD16A2), and validated against recharge estimates from the water table fluctuation (WTF) method. Results show strong spatial disparities, with upstream zones receiving disproportionately higher water allocations due to ancestral water rights, sustaining potential recharge in ∼90 % of months, while midstream and downstream zones consistently faced deficits. Despite local recharge events linked to flood years, statistically significant declining trends in recharge were observed across all zones, reflecting both reduced streamflow and intensified groundwater abstraction. Sensitivity tests revealed that neglecting rainfall and ΔS introduces only modest biases (≤12 % in upstream, ≤24 % in midstream zones), confirming the dominance of irrigation as the primary recharge driver. Potential recharge estimates aligned closely with WTF-derived values (differences of 5–14 %), further attesting to the reliability of the approach. These findings highlight the vulnerability of traditional irrigation systems under climate and human pressures and emphasize the urgent need for integrated water management strategies that safeguard ancestral irrigation practices while promoting adaptive measures such as managed aquifer recharge and climate-smart agriculture.
Industry 4.0 is positioned at the junction of different disciplines, aiming to re-engineer processes and improve effectiveness and efficiency. It is taking over many industries whose traditional practices are being disrupted by advances in technology and inter-connectivity. In this context, enhanced agriculture systems incorporate new components that are capable of generating better decision making (humidity/temperature/soil sensors, drones for plague detection, smart irrigation, etc.) and also include novel processes for crop control (reproducible environmental conditions, proven strategies for water stress, etc.). At the same time, advances in model-driven development (MDD) simplify software development by introducing domain-specific abstractions of the code that makes application development feasible for domain experts who cannot code. XMDD (eXtreme MDD) makes this way to assemble software even more user-friendly and enables application domain experts who are not programmers to create complex solutions in a more straightforward way. Key to this approach is the introduction of high-level representations of domain-specific functionalities (called SIBs, service-independent building blocks) that encapsulate the programming code and their organisation in reusable libraries, and they are made available in the application development environment. This way, new domain-specific abstractions of the code become easily comprehensible and composable by domain experts. In this paper, we apply these concepts to a smart agriculture solution, producing a proof of concept for the new methodology in this application domain to be used as a portable demonstrator for MDD in IoT and agriculture in the Confirm Research Centre for Smart Manufacturing. Together with model-driven development tools, we leverage here the capabilities of the Nordic Thingy:53 as a multi-protocol IoT prototyping platform. It is an advanced sensing device that handles the data collection and distribution for decision making in the context of the agricultural system and supports edge computing. We demonstrate the importance of high-level abstraction when adopting a complex software development cycle within a multilayered heterogeneous IT ecosystem.
Junaid Mushtaq Lone, Shinsuke Agehara, Amr Abd-Elrahman
Commercial strawberry (Fragaria ×ananassa Duch.) production in Florida relies heavily on bare-root transplants, which typically have 3–5 leaves with partially desiccated roots. Successful establishment requires sprinkler irrigation during daylight hours for the first 10–14 days, leading to substantial water consumption. To address this issue, we evaluated the efficacy of intermittent sprinkler irrigation as a water conservation strategy. We conducted field experiments over two growing seasons [Season 1 (2021–22) and Season 2 (2022–23)] in west-central Florida using three major strawberry cultivars, ‘Florida127’, ‘Florida Brilliance’, and ‘FL 16.30–128’. Plants were subjected to four different intermittent irrigation programs during establishment: 10/0 (continuous irrigation), 10/10, 10/15, and 10/20 min (on/off) from 0800 to 1800 HR for 12 days after transplanting. The impact of intermittent irrigation on marketable yield was cultivar- and season-dependent. 'Florida Brilliance' exhibited a 27 % yield increase in Season 1 but no significant difference in Season 2. By contrast, the other two cultivars exhibited no significant yield response in either season. In ‘Florida Brilliance’, marketable yield was strongly correlated with early canopy growth, suggesting that the yield increase was due partly to accelerated canopy establishment. This surprising result could be explained by the role of stress-induced leaf senescence in enhancing acclimation to adverse environmental conditions. It is speculated that increased heat stress from intermittent irrigation promotes senescence of initial leaves, facilitating nutrient translocation to the crown and subsequently accelerating the formation of new leaves and roots. Our results demonstrate that, without significant yield loss, intermittent sprinkler irrigation can reduce water use by 50–67 % during the establishment of strawberry bare-root transplants, accounting for 322–429 mm of water saving (3.2–4.3 million liters per hectare). Importantly, this water-conservation practice is easy to implement and does not negatively impact fruit quality.
Eric N. Ponnampalam, Eric N. Ponnampalam, Michelle Kearns
et al.
Optimising resource use efficiency in animal- agriculture-production systems is important for the economic, environmental, and social sustainability of food systems. Production of foods with increased health enhancing aspects can add value to the health and wellbeing of the population. However, enrichment of foods, especially meat with health enhancing fatty acids (HEFA) increases susceptibility to peroxidation, which adversely influences its shelf life, nutritional value and eating quality. The meat industry has been challenged to find sustainable strategies that enhance the fatty acid profile and antioxidant actions of meat while mitigating oxidative deterioration and spoilage. Currently, by-products or co-products from agricultural industries containing a balance of HEFA and antioxidant sources seem to be a sustainable strategy to overcome this challenge. However, HEFA and antioxidant enrichment processes are influenced by ruminal lipolysis and biohydrogenation, HEFA-antioxidant interactions in rumen ecosystems and muscle biofortification. A deep understanding of the performance of different agro-by-product-based HEFA and antioxidants and their application in current animal production systems is critical in developing HEFA-antioxidant co-supplementation strategies that would benefit modern consumers who desire nutritious, palatable, safe, healthy, affordable, and welfare friendly meat and processed meat products. The current review presents the latest developments regarding discovery and application of novel sources of health beneficial agro-by-product-based HEFA and antioxidants currently used in the production of HEFA-antioxidant enriched ruminant meats and highlights future research perspectives.
Aiming at the problems of reduced winter wheat yield and aggravation of nitrogen leaching pollution caused by the waterlogging in the Middle-Lower Yangtze Plain, China, a two-year field experiment with three farmland water levels (W40, W60, W80) and three nitrogen application rates (N150, N225, N300) as well as a non-waterlogged treatment (CK) was carried out, to investigate the coupling effects of farmland water level and nitrogen application rate on the plant growth, grain yield, crop water productivity (WPC) and nitrogen load with waterlogging conditions. Three man-made waterlogging events were applied at winter wheat jointing-booting stage, heading-flowering stage and grain filling stage, respectively. The results indicated that with the farmland water level decreased from −40 cm to −60 cm and the nitrogen application rate increased from 150 kg∙ha−1 to 225 kg∙ha−1, the plant height, aboveground dry matter, leaf area index, spike length, grain yield, effective panicles, grain number per ear, 1000-grain weight and WPC in the waterlogging field increased significantly. However, since the nitrogen application rate exceeded 225 kg∙ha−1 and farmland water level lowered more than −60 cm, the favorable effects of nitrogen application rate and farmland water level for winter wheat growth and production reduced. Additionally, both the nitrogen load and partial factor productivity of nitrogen (PFPN) increased with the decline of farmland water level, while the nitrogen load increased and the PFPN decreased with the increasing nitrogen application rate. The raise of nitrogen rate from 150 kg∙ha−1 to 225 kg∙ha−1 was beneficial to plant growth, however, the increase of nitrogen application resulted in the decrease of PFPN and increase of drainage nitrogen loads. Compared with the water farmland water level of −40 cm and nitrogen application rate of 150 kg∙ha−1, the increase of nitrogen application rate and the decrease of farmland water level in the range of 50%-100% resulted in yield raise by 5.78%-32.29% approximately and the increase of nitrogen load by 36.20%-178.44% approximately. The comprehensive evaluation with TOPSIS-Entropy method for plant growth, grain yield, WPC, PFPN and nitrogen loads suggested that, the appropriate nitrogen application rate for winter wheat in the waterlogging areas of Middle-Lower Yangtze Plain in China was 225 kg∙ha−1, and the proper farmland water level was lowering to −80 cm in wet year and −60 cm in dry year within 3 days after waterlogging.
Mahfujul Alam, Mir Meahadi Hasan, Mrinal Kanti Debnath
et al.
Papaya fruits different edible and non-edible portions are valued for the abundance of numerous nutrients and therapeutic benefits. The study was aimed to examine the physico-chemical properties, bioactive compounds (total phenolics and total flavonoids), antioxidant activity and microstructure analysis of the peel, pulp and seed flour of both ripe and unripe papaya. The results demonstrated the different portions of both ripe and unripe papaya fruit flour differed significantly with respect to almost all quality attributes within them. The physico-chemical variations have been evaluated through evaluation of the pH, moisture content, TSS, and ascorbic acid content of the papaya fruits during both ripening stages. Statistically significant variations (p < 0.05) were observed between two distinct stages of ripening. The concentration of ascorbic acid in the fruit revealed a notable increase as it matured, while the pH, moisture, and TSS all exhibited a substantial decrease (p < 0.05) during the immature stage. The unripe peel showed the most significant level of bulk density, tapped density, swelling capacity, crude fiber, and TFC whereas the unripe seed showed the highest value of ash, crude fat, and TPC. For the rest of the value, ripe pulp and seed flour showed a significantly higher value than others. The total phenolic content in seed flour and the total flavonoid content of peel flour were 196.9 ± 0.03 and 164.9 ± 0.08 mgQE/100 g, respectively, at unripe conditions. An immense amount of antioxidant activity was found in ripe (20.48 ± 0.54%) and unripe (16.05 ± 0.32%) peels flour. The flour granules' diverse morphological forms and particle sizes were identified by SEM analysis. The versatility of papaya and its various components provides opportunities for applications in the food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and agricultural industries. The papaya fruit flour of different portions have unique functional, nutritional, and morphological characteristics that may contribute to the development of gluten free flour based value added baked products.
Agriculture (General), Nutrition. Foods and food supply
ABSTRACT Cadmium (Cd) has accumulated in New Zealand agricultural systems, predominantly from the application of phosphorus (P) fertiliser to soils. Elevated Cd concentrations in soils are an important issue due to their potential adverse effects on food quality, soil health, land use flexibility, and the environment. This paper reports on our current knowledge of Cd in New Zealand agricultural systems, summarising published and unpublished research that has been undertaken over the last 30 years to better understand, improve, and manage the potential adverse effects of Cd in agricultural soils. We found the research has been wide ranging, investigating factors such as Cd uptake in plants and animals, the rate of Cd inputs, transformation and losses from soils, Cd bioavailability, the development of animal uptake and Cd mass‐balance models, as well as identifying and testing strategies and remediation options to manage Cd accumulation in agricultural systems. This research is then placed alongside the policy and regulatory context for managing Cd in agricultural systems in New Zealand, including national Cd management strategies. Finally, key knowledge gaps are presented, along with some potential Cd research directions for the future.
Soil heavy metal pollution seriously endangers the soil ecological environment and food safety production. In this study, drip irrigation tests with four irrigation frequencies were conducted by controlling the lower limit of the soil matric potential (D1: −10 kPa; D2: −20 kPa; D3: −30 kPa; D4: −40 kPa). Through comparison with traditional surface irrigation, the effect of drip irrigation on the root zone soil environment under heavy metal pollution and the mechanism through which drip irrigation influences soybean heavy metal enrichment characteristics were explored. The conclusions are as follows. (i) Drip irrigation can improve the root zone soil environment of soybean under combined Cd, Pb and Cr(VI) pollution and is conducive to the recovery of bacterial community structure. (ii) Compared with surface irrigation, drip irrigation reduced the contents of Cd, Pb and Cr(VI) in the root zone soil, with maximum reductions of 34.88% (D1), 31.35% (D2) and 34.20% (D2), respectively. (iii) Drip irrigation increased the accumulation of Cd, Pb and Cr(VI) in soybean. However, compared with surface irrigation, drip irrigation changed the distribution of Cd, Pb and Cr(VI) in soybean organs so that more Cd, Pb and Cr(VI) were stored in roots and significantly less Cd and Cr(VI) were stored in seeds, with maximum reductions of 16.62% (D2) and 19.49% (D2), respectively. These results can be used to develop a new strategy for the prevention and control of soil heavy metal pollution.
Yacouba Telly, Xuezhi Liu, Tadagbe Roger Sylvanus Gbenou
Despite its immense natural resources, Angola struggles to significantly improve its economy to reduce poverty. Carbon emissions have been increasing over the years, even though the country plans to reduce them by 35% by 2030. This paper attempts to assess the carbon emissions of several sectors (industries, transport, services, and residences) on economic growth, intending to find a balance between environmental protection that requires carbon emissions reduction and economic development that may add to environmental degradation. The study employed time series data on GDP, CO<sub>2</sub>, CH<sub>4</sub>, and N<sub>2</sub>O covering 1971 to 2021 and ARDL and ECM models. This is the first study at the state level in Angola on the relationship between economic development and environmental sustainability considering methane and nitrous oxide emissions. Additionally, the paper assesses the responses of GDP to deviation shock of GDP, CO<sub>2</sub>, CH<sub>4</sub>, and N<sub>2</sub>O by 2032. Phillip Perron and Augmented Dickey-Fuller tests showed that all the data are stationary at the first difference, favoring the application of the ARDL model to explore the short and long-run relationships. The result reveals that methane from agricultural activities and carbon emissions from the building sector and public services contribute to economic growth, whereas carbon emissions from industrial heat systems, non-renewable electricity production, and manufacturing industries harm economic growth. However, no relationship exists between nitrous oxide emissions and economic development. In addition, impulse response function estimates show that appropriate investments can sustain economic development over the years. Therefore, the country should diversify its economy and avoid polluting fuel sources, such as coal. Raising renewable energy’s proportion in the total energy mix can support growth while considering the environmental quality. Investments in skills training, academic projects in renewable energy technologies development, agriculture mechanization, and sustainable job creation are recommended. Additionally, investing in quality seeds adapted to climate realities might help lessen climate change’s adverse effects and promote growth. Manure manufacturing processes must be improved to reduce agriculture and livestock’s methane and nitrous oxide emissions. The country’s leaders are encouraged to promote raw material processing industries while insisting on reducing carbon emissions.
Several factors associated with disease diagnosis in plants using deep learning techniques must be considered to develop a robust system for accurate disease management. A considerable number of studies have investigated the potential of deep learning techniques for precision agriculture in the last decade. However, despite the range of applications, several gaps within plant disease research are yet to be addressed to support disease management on farms. Thus, there is a need to establish a knowledge base of existing applications and identify the challenges and opportunities to help advance the development of tools that address farmers' needs. This study presents a comprehensive overview of 70 studies on deep learning applications and the trends associated with their use for disease diagnosis and management in agriculture. The studies were sourced from four indexing services, namely Scopus, IEEE Xplore, Science Direct, and Google Scholar, and 11 main keywords used were Plant Diseases, Precision Agriculture, Unmanned Aerial System (UAS), Imagery Datasets, Image Processing, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Transfer Learning, Image Classification, Object Detection, and Semantic Segmentation. The review is focused on providing a detailed assessment and considerations for developing deep learning-based tools for plant disease diagnosis in the form of seven key questions pertaining to (i) dataset requirements, availability, and usability, (ii) imaging sensors and data collection platforms, (iii) deep learning techniques, (iv) generalization of deep learning models, (v) disease severity estimation, (vi) deep learning and human accuracy comparison, and (vii) open research topics. These questions can help address existing research gaps by guiding further development and application of tools to support plant disease diagnosis and provide disease management support to farmers.
Bibiana Melo Ramborger, Marcelo da Costa Borba, Joana Gasparotto Kuhn
et al.
O presente artigo busca identificar os fatores condicionantes que influenciam a sucessão geracional em modelo integrado de produção avícola e suinícola na região do Vale do Taquari-RS. Realizou-se pesquisa de campo com coleta de informações através de questionários semiestruturados, realizados nas propriedades rurais com sucessores e possíveis sucessores. Constatou-se que o perfil predominante entre os respondentes, sucessores que retornaram após um período fora das propriedades de suas famílias. Além disso, alguns aspectos do ponto de vistas dos sucessores acerca de sistema de produção e o mercado agropecuário, como suas visões de mercado, os aspectos que levaram a continuação dos trabalhos exercidos na propriedade, suas intenções de continuar no sistema e a diversificações de produção nas propriedades. Acrescentando ainda que os sucessores estão mais críticos em sua tomada de decisão em vista de suas escolhas de vida dentro e fora das propriedades rurais.
This study aims to analyze the effect of agricultural workers, education level, female workers and the role of government policies on poverty rate in Sumatra. Observations were made in 151 districts/cities in Sumatra during the period 2013-2015 and 2017-2018. The approach used is a panel data regression model. The method applied is random effect. The findings show the labor in the agricultural sector has a significant and positive effect on the poverty rate in Sumatra, while the level of education and government spending has a significant and negative effect on the poverty rate. The policy implication is that it is necessary to increase labor productivity in the agricultural sector and other industries that are more efficient. The government also needs to strengthen the agricultural sub-sector in order to have better value-added products. Optimizing and improving basic services such as education, health, economic and social.