Bio-Based Fertilizers and Soil Health: Innovations for Nutrient Recycling and Environmental Protection

A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Soil and Plant Nutrition".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 January 2026 | Viewed by 31

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
CERNAS-IPCB Research Centre, Polytechnic University of Castelo Branco, 6001-909 Castelo Branco, Portugal
Interests: soil science; fertilization and plant nutrition; sustainable management of fertilizers and fertilization; bio-based fertilizers
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
CERNAS-IPCB Research Centre, Polytechnic University of Castelo Branco, 6001-909 Castelo Branco, Portugal
Interests: vibrational spectroscopy; chemometrics; food science; new product development; sensory analysis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The maintenance of soil health is crucial in relation to providing good quantities of high-quality food to an increasing worldwide population in a climate change scenario.

Therefore, there is an urgent need to adopt sustainable soil fertilization practices, which lead to a decrease in the production of mineral fertilizers obtained from finite natural resources. Currently, large quantities of effluents are produced by human activities, agro-food technology, or livestock production containing crop nutrients; however, these effluents have some disadvantages such as crop nutrient imbalance, diversified mineral composition, and unknown mineralization rates. To overcome these disadvantages, some approaches have been developed (e.g., composting, vermicomposting, algae-based nutrient recovery, electrodialysis, precipitation, pyrolysis, and hydrothermal carbonization) to produce bio-based fertilizers (BBFs), which aim to recover and recycle nutrients from secondary raw materials, promoting more sustainable soil management practices in conventional and organic agricultural sectors and contributing to close nutrient cycles.

The main purpose of this Special Issue is to gain a deeper understanding of the role of these BBFs through a holistic approach focused on soil health, as well as assessing their biostimulant and/or a pytoprotective behaviour against crop diseases and pests, as well as exploring the increase in the soil’s C content and sequestration. Another topic of interest is the application of rapid, non-destructive, and highly informative ways of investigating the complex physical and chemical properties of soils and fertilisers, such as vibrational spectroscopy. This technique allows for the accurate identification and characterization of the BBFs and soil, as well as their nutrient forms, monitoring transformation processes and quality control, all of which are critical to optimising plant growth while minimising environmental impact.

Prof. Dr. Carmo Horta
Prof. Dr. Ofélia Anjos
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

  • agronomic efficiency
  • bio-based fertilizers
  • biochar
  • circular economy
  • composting
  • conservative agriculture
  • struvite
  • pyrolysis
  • sustainable fertilization
  • vibrational spectroscopy

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Published Papers

This special issue is now open for submission.
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