Journal Menu
► Journal MenuJournal Browser
► Journal BrowserSpecial Issue "Sustainability Issues of Manure and Organic Waste Management in Agriculture"
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2021.
Special Issue Editors
Interests: agricultural engineering; livestock farming; energy, health and safety issues of manure management; environmental chemistry
Interests: agricultural engineering; livestock mechanisation and automation
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The increase in the global population, the rise of the competition for land, water and energy resources, and the threat of climate change and environmental issues are placing agriculture in the middle of a convergence of pressures. Further intensification of agricultural production appears to be the mandatory choice as long as it is sustainable. Therefore, current food production and distribution systems need a new design. Soil sustainable use and health are among the critical aspects of sustainable agriculture production. The economic and environmental costs of fertiliser transport make the FAO mixed farming concept (FAO, 2015) desirable. The recycling and the processing of organic residues deriving from on-farm (i.e., livestock manure) or off-farm (i.e., sewage sludge, food chain waste, composting) are fundamental for the development of sustainable food production systems (FAO, 2013) provided that we keep the focus on the efficiency and the safety of processes and matrices (Bernal, 2017) for operators and environment.
The sustainable use of organic matter also relates to precision and digital agriculture that, thanks to information technology and artificial intelligence, relies on site-specific management to tailor input use (i.e. variable rate application, tailor-made fertilisers) to achieve desired outcomes, and to monitor the results (e.g. yield mapping, remote sensing).
The multidisciplinary addressing of sustainable recycling of organic resources to agriculture enhances the circular economy and minimises the environmental footprint of our food production systems (Misselbrook et al., 2019).
For this Special Issue titled “Sustainability Issues of Manure and Organic Waste Management in Agriculture”, we welcome original conceptual and empirical studies focusing:
- Management of animal manure by-products.
- Integration and replacement of chemical fertilisers with organic fertilisers
- Technologies to re-use organic by-products as organic fertilisers or soil improvers.
- Variable rate application of organic by-products.
- Safety and sanitary issues related to manure and sewage management in agriculture.
- Development of nutrient management strategies to recover mineral nutrients and other safe products of high agronomic value from farm wastes.
- Marketability, safety and sustainability of bio-based fertilisers from animal manure.
- Modelling and Decision Support Systems to find the best manure and nutrient management strategies and distribution technologies maximising the nutrient efficiency
References
Bernal, M. P. (2017). Grand challenges in waste management in agroecosystems. Front. Sustain. Food Syst. 1:1. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2017.00001
EC - European Commission (2012) Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. http://ec.europa.eu/research/bioeconomy/pdf/official-strategy_en.pdf.
FAO (2013). Climate Smart Agriculture. http://www.fao.org/3/a-i3325e.pdf
FAO (2015). Mixed crop-livestock farming. http://www.fao.org/docrep/004/y0501e/y0501e00.htm#toc
Misselbrook T., Wagner-Riddle C., Richards K., Lanigan G., Burchill W., Salazar F. (2019). Editorial: RAMIRAN 2017: Sustainable Utilisation of Manures and Residue Resources in Agriculture. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 3: 80 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2019.00080
Dr. Massimo Brambilla
Dr. Carlo Bisaglia
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 papers will be 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. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 1900 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
- manure
- digestate
- sewage Sludge
- food chain waste
- rural development
- tailor-made fertilisers
- manure/slurry spreading control
- variable-rate application