Agricultural Valorization of Agro-Industrial By-Products: From Waste to Value

Dear Colleagues,

The continuously growing world population corresponds with the increasing demand for food worldwide. To meet this requirement, the agriculture industry has attempted to profoundly enhance crop production. However, these farming techniques, mainly the abuse and misuse of chemical fertilizers, have led to a general decline in soil quality, resulting in a vicious circle that accelerates the deterioration of soil quality and diminishes the worldwide agricultural yield. In addition, the overreliance on inorganic fertilizers decreases the abundance, accessibility, or uptake of soil nutrients, compromising the functionality of the native plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR).

On another front, the increasing production of industrial organic wastes and other residues makes their disposal and treatment particularly complex, resulting in major economic, social, and environmental challenges. Nevertheless, different industrial wastes are often enriched in fatty acids, volatile organic compounds, proteins, and carbohydrates, which can be employed as a crop nutrition source and a stimulant for plant growth-promoting microbiome without damaging the environment. Therefore, harmful industrial wastes could improve soil fertility, plant stress tolerance, crop productivity, and balanced nutrient cycling. Moreover, their agricultural utilization is a novel way of transforming them into value-added co-products, allowing for the implementation of the circular economy concept to the agricultural sector.

This Special Issue aims to focus on the novel utilization of industrial by-products and wastes as promoters of the fertility and nutrient status of soil as alternatives to the abuse and misuse of chemical fertilizers. We are open to receiving novel research, reviews, and opinion articles covering all aspects of using newly developed bio-fertilizers derived from the industrial co-products to stretch the native PGPR microbiome. Moreover, improved farming techniques, including new eco-friendly compounds, to achieve 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

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