Vegetable and fruit wastes: Valuable source for organic fertilizer for effective growth of short-term crops: Solanum lycopersicum and Capsicum annum

Ramamoorthy, Kavitha; Dhanraj, Rajesh; Vijayakumar, Natesan; Ma, Ying; Al Obaid, Sami; Narayanan, Mathiyazhagan

doi:10.1016/j.envres.2024.118727

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reports about 45% of fruits and vegetables (FV) are discarded (as waste) across the food supply chain [2]. Furthermore, the United Nations predicts that 13% of all agricultural product is lost during harvest as well as retail, while 17% is wasted in houses, retail, and eating places [4]. In the context of FVW valorization, one promising strategy is its exploitation as a substrate for mass rearing of edible insects to be used as a protein source for aquaculture, chicken farming, or as a lipid source for biodiesel production [5,6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Multidisciplinary Approach for the Development of a Supply Chain in Biomass Conversion of Agrifood Waste Mediated by Larvae of Hermetia illucens L.: From Rearing to By-Product Exploitation

De Santis,

de Iudicibus,

Lecce

et al. 2024

Agriculture

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Black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) can convert various organic substrates into high added-value biomass. In addition, the residue can be used as a soil conditioner. Several studies have been conducted on a laboratory scale that may not represent what happens on a prototype scale. Using fruit and vegetable waste as a basic substrate, mixing them with agro-industry by-products (called co-substrates), the Hermes project set up a process on medium (2 kg) and large (10 kg) scales with two different feeding regimes (1.25 g/BSFL and 2 g/BSFL). At the mature stage, larval biomass was separated from frass (the by-product of the larval rearing). The production of larval proteins and fats and the use of frass as soil conditioning were evaluated. The lowest feeding regime (1.25 g/BSFL) provided the best waste valorization. The shift towards higher production scales is not completely linear. The addition of co-substrates to fruit and vegetable waste, as they are provided by the large-scale retail trade, can help to standardize a process as part of an insect farm. The frass recovered from the residue of rearing (on the diet or on the agrifood leftovers) was composted and used in field to grow a processing tomato variety. The addition of composted frass assured a slightly lower yield than synthetic fertilizer but there was no statistically significant difference (p > 0.10). This suggests that partial replacement of synthetic fertilizer with composted frass has potential. Overall, the work demonstrated that, using a multidisciplinary approach, the interest and the value in building a supply chain based on bioconversion mediated by Hermetia illucens can be emphasized.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%