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Agronomy
Special Issues
Potential Aspects of Agro-Industrial By-Products in Circular Agriculture
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Potential Aspects of Agro-Industrial By-Products in Circular Agriculture

A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Agricultural Biosystem and Biological Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2024) | Viewed by 2315

Special Issue Editors

Dr. David Correa-Galeote

E-Mail Website1 Website2
Guest Editor
Department of Microbiology, University of Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain
Interests: environmental microbiology; wastewater treatment; microbial ecology; correlation networks; mixed microbial culture (MMC)
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Antonio Serrano

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Microbiology, University of Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain
Interests: environmental microbiology; wastewater treatment; microbial ecology; anaerobic digestion
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The continuous growth of the world population is putting higher demands on the world's food supply. Therefore, it is urgent to find environmentally friendly ways to promote plant growth and increase crop productivity. On the one hand, the abuse and misuse of chemical fertilizers has led to a general decline in soil quality, accelerating the deterioration of soil quality and reducing agricultural output worldwide. In addition, excessive reliance on inorganic fertilizers reduces the abundance, availability, or uptake of soil nutrients, compromising the function of the native plant growth-promoting rhizobium (PGPR). On the other hand, the increasing production of industrial organic wastes and other residues poses significant economic, social and environmental challenges. However, industrial wastes are often rich in fatty acids, volatile organic compounds, proteins and carbohydrates, and can act as a source of nutrients for crops and as a stimulant for the microbiota, promoting plant growth without damaging the environment. Considering this, hazardous industrial waste can be used to improve soil fertility, plant stress resistance and crop productivity, as well as balance nutrient cycling. Its agricultural utilization plays an important role in the realization of circular agriculture.

This Special Issue focuses on the novel utilization of industrial by-products and wastes for promoting soil fertility and nutritional status. We welcome novel research, reviews and opinion articles covering all aspects of using newly developed biofertilizers derived from industrial co-products to stretch the native PGPR microbiome. Moreover, improved farming techniques, including new eco-friendly compounds, that can help meet the increasing worldwide demand for food will be an essential part of this Special Issue. Finally, agronomic studies assessing these co-products as PGPR inoculants in sustainable agriculture are also welcome.

Dr. David Correa-Galeote
Dr. Antonio Serrano
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agronomy is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • agro-industrial residues
  • agro-wastes
  • food by-products
  • novel technology
  • recovery of proteins, dietary fibers, antioxidants, new fertilizers, etc., from plant origin by-products
  • valorization of industrial waste and crop residues with potential
  • application
  • biomass conversion
  • enhancing yield and quality of crops
  • plague control and stress prevention
  • new sources of PGRP
  • new microbial inoculants
  • sustainable agriculture

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 562 KiB  
Article
Enhancing Laccase and Manganese Peroxidase Activity in White-Rot Fungi: The Role of Copper, Manganese, and Lignocellulosic Substrates
by Viviana Benavides, Gustavo Ciudad, Fernanda Pinto-Ibieta, Tatiana Robledo, Olga Rubilar and Antonio Serrano
Agronomy 2024, 14(11), 2562; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy14112562 - 31 Oct 2024
Viewed by 504
Abstract
White-rot fungi (WRF) are increasingly recognized for their biotechnological potential due to the wide range of applications of ligninolytic enzymes. The addition of different metals involved in the functioning of ligninolytic enzymes, mainly copper and manganese, has been widely studied to maximize the [...] Read more.
White-rot fungi (WRF) are increasingly recognized for their biotechnological potential due to the wide range of applications of ligninolytic enzymes. The addition of different metals involved in the functioning of ligninolytic enzymes, mainly copper and manganese, has been widely studied to maximize the enzymatic activities of the WRF. This review aims to provide information on the effect of metal-fungi interaction mechanisms that justify the effects of enzymatic activity. The addition of copper is associated with increased laccase activity, with reported improvements in the laccase activity compared to controls without metal addition of up to 100% at doses between 0.5–1 mM. The addition of manganese resulted in an improvement in manganese peroxidase activity with respect to the control at the wide range of 1–18.2 mM. Furthermore, enzymatic activity was generally favored by using substrates with lignocellulosic fibers with respect to synthetic culture medium. Quantifying the concentration of metals in the substrate is required to monitor bioavailable metals for fungi in these assays accurately, making an external contribution less necessary. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Potential Aspects of Agro-Industrial By-Products in Circular Agriculture)
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17 pages, 930 KiB  
Article
Nitrogen-Rich Sewage Sludge Mineralized Quickly, Improving Lettuce Nutrition and Yield, with Reduced Risk of Heavy Metal Contamination of Soil and Plant Tissues
by Margarida Arrobas, Ramily Meneses, Andressa Gribler Gusmão, Julieta Moreira da Silva, Carlos Manuel Correia and Manuel Ângelo Rodrigues
Agronomy 2024, 14(5), 924; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy14050924 - 27 Apr 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1336
Abstract
Sewage sludge should primarily find use in agriculture, reducing the quantity directed towards alternative disposal methods like incineration or deposition in municipal landfills. This study evaluated the agronomic value and the risk of soil and plant tissue contamination with heavy metals in sewage [...] Read more.
Sewage sludge should primarily find use in agriculture, reducing the quantity directed towards alternative disposal methods like incineration or deposition in municipal landfills. This study evaluated the agronomic value and the risk of soil and plant tissue contamination with heavy metals in sewage sludge obtained from two wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). The experiment was arranged as a 2 × 5 factorial (two sewage sludges, five sanitation treatments), involving lettuce cultivation in pots over two growing cycles. The two sewage sludges were sourced from the WWTPs of Gelfa and Viana do Castelo and underwent five sanitation and stabilization treatments (40% and 20% calcium oxide, 40% and 20% calcium hydroxide, and untreated sewage sludge). The Gelfa sewage sludge, characterized by a higher initial nitrogen (N) concentration, resulted in greater dry-matter yield (DMY) (12.4 and 8.6 g plant−1 for the first and second growing cycles, respectively) compared to that from Viana do Castelo (11.0 and 8.1 g plant−1), with N release likely being a major factor influencing crop productivity. The high N concentration and the low carbon (C)/N ratio of sewage sludge led to rapid mineralization of the organic substrate, which additionally led to a higher release of other important nutrients, such as phosphorus (P) and boron (B), making them available for plant uptake. Alkalizing treatments further stimulated sewage sludge mineralization, increasing soil pH and exchangeable calcium (Ca), thereby enhancing Ca availability for plants, and indicating a preference for use in acidic soils. Cationic micronutrients were minimally affected by the sewage sludge and their treatments. The concentrations of heavy metals in the sewage sludge, soils, and lettuce tissues were all below internationally established threshold limits. This study highlighted the high fertilizing value of these sewage sludges, supplying N, P, and B to plants, while demonstrating a low risk of environmental contamination with heavy metals. Nevertheless, the safe use of sewage sludge by farmers depends on monitoring other risks, such as toxic organic compounds, which were not evaluated in this study. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Potential Aspects of Agro-Industrial By-Products in Circular Agriculture)
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