Dear Colleagues,
A major issue of our society is the global increase in food demand due to the extreme growth rate of the world human population. Hence, to deliver the required food supplies, inorganic fertilizers and chemical pesticides have been intensively applied to improve the yield of key crops. The need for sustainable fertilization with minimal impact on the environment has started the search for sources of potential fertilizer alternatives for application in agronomy. This has generated interest in renewable feedstock from biomass waste. Many of these wastes, such as plant and animal residues, sewage sludge or animal excrements, are disposed of in landfills, composed or incinerated. However, these materials are valuable sources of nutrients for plant production. Additionally, the suitable pretreatment of input biomass feedstock (composting, pyrolysis, hydrothermal carbonisation, gasification) can lead to the production of ecotoxicologically safe products in sustainable agriculture.
As a guest editor of this Special Issue of Agriculture, I would like to invite researchers and scientists to provide excellent advances on the various aspects of waste utilization as potential soil fertilizers and additives to improve soil characteristics and crop yields in sustainable agriculture.
For more information: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/agriculture/special_issues/Waste_Fertilizer
Dr. Vladimír Frišták (guest editor for Special Issue "From Waste to Fertilizer in Sustainable Agriculture")