Potential Applications of Food-Waste-Based Anaerobic Digestate for Sustainable Crop Production Practice

Abstract

The global food system is and will be facing many challenges in the coming decades, which will necessitate innovative solutions to address the issues of a diminishing fertilizer supply, an increasing food demand from growing populations, and frequent extreme climates due to greenhouse gas emissions. An advancement proposed is the synthesizing of fertilizer from food waste, here referred to as food waste anaerobic digestate (FWAD). This occurs through the process of anaerobic digestion, where organic matter such as food waste is contained in an anaerobic environment and allowed to be broken down by microorganisms. One of the resulting products is anaerobic digestate, which possesses the necessary nutrients for effective fertilization for crop production. In addition to reducing greenhouse gases and waste in landfills, the replacement of synthetic fertilizers with ones made from food waste would help to alleviate the impacts of the current fertilizer shortage being experienced worldwide, which will be exacerbated by a reducing supply of materials needed for synthetic fertilizer production. In this paper, we discuss the nutrient characteristics of FWAD, and recent studies utilizing FWAD in horticulture and crop production, to advance our understanding of the effectiveness and challenges of using FWAD as a fertilizer. By employing appropriate application methods, such as nitrification, dilution, and amendment, FWAD demonstrates considerable potential as an effective fertilizer for a wide range of leafy greens and some fruiting crops.

Plant Growth Enhancement under Combined Amendments of Food Waste Digestate and Rhizosphere Microbial Co-Occurrence

“…The findings of this study are consistent with the observations of a previous study. 47,30 As plants adapt to reducing the negative impact of high mineral nitrogen, biochar may increase root mass in treatments A2, A4, A6, A8, and A9 mixed with biochar and FWD and treatments A1 and A6 mixed with pure biochar. 25 Additionally, biochar showed promising economic sustainability, as well as crop yields that surpassed compost and cocopeat.…”

Green Waste from Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) Cultivation as a Source of Bioactive Flavonoids with Hypolipidemic Potential

“…One of the objectives is to understand the potential of this raw material, which is produced in large quantities around the world and, in most cases, remains unused, and to obtain economically valuable products [18]. Research on greenhouse green waste disposal has been performed from several directions, including the development of various methods for composting organic residues, the use of dried plants as a substrate for growing mushrooms, and the development of methods for processing organic waste into carbohydrate-containing products and/or their derivatives [19]. The main composting processes are labor-intensive and inefficient, while the cultivation of mushrooms and deep processing leads to the underutilization of the plant metabolome, which may have potential biological activity [20].…”