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Agronomy
Special Issues
Green Chemistry: A Smart Pathway for Sustainable Agriculture
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Green Chemistry: A Smart Pathway for Sustainable Agriculture

A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Agroecology Innovation: Achieving System Resilience".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2023) | Viewed by 6216

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Ornella Francioso

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
Interests: anaerobic digestion; biomass recycling and use; soil organic matter; FTIR; Raman; NMR; CF-IRMS; TG-DTA; biostimulants’ biological activity; white-rot fungi
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Tony Patti

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Chemistry, Monash University, Wellington Road, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia
Interests: organic chemistry and green chemistry—valorization of biomass, particularly through agricultural production for food; chemistry of soil organic matter; novel fertilizers; humic substances; applications of green chemistry in agriculture

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Green chemistry is an innovative and eco-friendly process designed to reduce or eliminate the production and use of chemicals that are harmful to the environment and human health and at the same time provide economic prosperity and social benefits. Today, green chemistry represents a new paradigm in agriculture as it serves as a driving force for sustainable agricultural development. There is a direct and explicit nexus between sustainable agriculture and the 2030 Agenda's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which is based on positive and immediate benefits for both agriculture and environment. Agriculture has a key role in providing the renewable biomass for future chemical feedstocks and, at the same time, judicious management of the non-renewable raw materials through sustainable and smart technologies. Accordingly, the SDGs are all represented in green chemistry, which aims to reduce harmful chemicals from production to field application, food safety, improved crop production and quality, utilization, and waste reduction through a virtuous recycling process. This Special Issue is focused on the main green techniques and processes already in use or emerging in agriculture. Topics can include novel fertilizer design for efficient delivery of plant nutrients, new pesticides and herbicides (including biopesticides and bioherbicides) that have minimum adverse environmental effects, polymer mulches, and soil acidity management technologies. The valorization of agro-waste to develop a new generation of bioproducts (for enhancing the value of crop production) will be of particular interest, leading to substantial social and economic advantages and environment preservation.

Dr. Ornella Francioso
Prof. Dr. Tony Patti 
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

  • green chemistry
  • by-products
  • agro-waste
  • novel fertilizers
  • biopesticides
  • benign herbicides
  • biostimulants
  • biomass valorization
  • renewable feedstocks
  • circular economy

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 1976 KiB  
Article
Effect of Plasma Activated Water on the Degradation of Bifenazate and Spirodiclofen Residues on Cuimi kumquat and Impact on Its Quality
by Xiaonan Wang, Jing Feng, Shuo Chen, Si Qin, Yuanfu Zang, Haiyuan Huang and Jie Wei
Agronomy 2023, 13(5), 1247; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy13051247 - 27 Apr 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1797
Abstract
With the development of plasma-activated water (PAW) technology, its applications in the fields of food, agriculture, and biomedicine are becoming increasingly widespread. PAW has sterilization, pesticide residue reduction, anti-cancer, and blood clotting functions. Traditional methods for pesticide degradation include home processing, baking and [...] Read more.
With the development of plasma-activated water (PAW) technology, its applications in the fields of food, agriculture, and biomedicine are becoming increasingly widespread. PAW has sterilization, pesticide residue reduction, anti-cancer, and blood clotting functions. Traditional methods for pesticide degradation include home processing, baking and freeze-drying, and UV treatment; however, they generally suffer from poor degradation efficiency and adverse effects on fruit quality. This study found that PAW treatment is a green and efficient environmental technology with the advantages of simple operation, good treatment effect, and no secondary pollution. This paper investigated the efficiency of PAW on the reduction of two acaricides, namely, bifenazate and spirodiclofen, and the effect of PAW treatment on the quality of Cuimi kumquat. The results showed that after PAW treatment, the residual amounts of bifenazate and spirodiclofen were reduced to a minimum of 1.19 mg·kg−1 and 0.23 mg·kg−1, with a reduction of 74.35% and 59.37% respectively compared to the control. Moreover, PAW treatment did not have any negative effects on the storage quality of Cuimi kumquat. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Chemistry: A Smart Pathway for Sustainable Agriculture)
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19 pages, 3080 KiB  
Article
Sustainable Management of Anaerobic Digestate: From Biogas Plant to Full-Scale Cultivation of Pleurotus ostreatus
by Veronica Zuffi, Federico Puliga, Alessandra Zambonelli, Lorenzo Trincone, Santiago Sanchez-Cortes and Ornella Francioso
Agronomy 2023, 13(4), 950; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy13040950 - 23 Mar 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2705
Abstract
In the last decades, the number of studies about the valorization of agricultural by-products has strongly increased due to the growing focus on the circular economy. In this context, mushroom cultivation is raising attention for its nutritional properties and adaptability to different growing [...] Read more.
In the last decades, the number of studies about the valorization of agricultural by-products has strongly increased due to the growing focus on the circular economy. In this context, mushroom cultivation is raising attention for its nutritional properties and adaptability to different growing conditions. The goal of this project is, therefore, to create a link between two production chains, valorizing the solid anaerobic digestate fraction from the biogas plant as a potential substrate for Pleurotus ostreatus full-scale cultivation. A preliminary in vitro trial shows that the mycelia can colonize at the same rate in both the conventional substrate, which was wheat straw added with sunflower cake and the experimental ones supplemented with corn digestate. The most important and innovative part of the work was full-scale cultivation. Quantitative analyses demonstrate that P. ostreatus is capable of growing on the conventional substrate as well as on the substrate containing 15% of digestate without reducing the mushroom harvest. Even better, digestate seems to stimulate a precocious and more homogeneous production. Chemical and spectroscopic analyses on the fruiting bodies confirm the results; in fact, mushrooms show a comparable structural composition, highlighted with FTIR and SERS spectroscopic evaluations. Moreover, the nutrient content did not change due to the addition of digestate. These promising results demonstrate that anaerobic digestate can become a resource for P. ostreatus cultivation without production losses and maintaining the same qualitative characteristics. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Chemistry: A Smart Pathway for Sustainable Agriculture)
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