Agricultural Waste

Management

Prof. P. K. Mani
BCKV, India
pabitramani@gmail.com
Syllabus:
Introduction to agricultural waste management.
Nature and Characteristics of agricultural waste and their impact on the envt.
Kinds of waste, classification, role of soil and plants in waste management,
sources of waste, impact of waste on soil and plant quality.
Biological processes of waste management.
Utilization and recycling of Agricultural waste, Potential of Recyclable Crop
Residues and its management,
In-situ management of agriculture waste Composting and Vermicomposting
for the bio conservation of biodegradable waste.
Biogas Technology, Agricultural waste and water, air and animal resources,
Impacts of waste on human, animal health and environment.
Management of bedding and litter, wasted feed, run off from feed lots and
holding areas and waste water from dairy parlours, agro waste recycling
through farming systems.
Waste management machineries, environmental benefits of waste mangmt.
Agricultural wastes (AW) can be defined as the residues from the growing field
crops and processing of raw agricultural products such as fruits, vegetables,
meat, poultry, dairy products and crops.
They are the non-product outputs of production and processing of agricultural
products that may contain material that can benefit man but whose economic
values are less than the cost of collection, transportation, and processing for
beneficial use.
This term includes both natural (organic) and non-natural wastes produced
through various farming activities such as dairy farming, horticulture, seed
growing, livestock breeding, grazing land, market gardens, nursery plots and
even woodlands
AW can be in the form of solid, liquid or slurries depending on the nature of
agricultural activities.

 Although the quantity of wastes produced by the agricultural sector is

significantly low compared to wastes generated by other industries, the
pollution potential of agricultural wastes is high on a long-term basis.
 Agricultural waste :
Glossary of Environment Statistics, UN (1997)defines agricultural waste as:
Agricultural waste is waste produced as a result of various agricultural
operations. It includes manure and other wastes from farms, poultry houses
and slaughterhouses; harvest waste; fertilizer run- off from fields; pesticides
that enter into water, air or soils; and salt and silt drained from fields.
Agricultural waste otherwise called agro-waste is comprised of animal waste (manure,
animal carcasses), food processing waste (only 20% of maize is canned and 80% is
waste), crop waste (corn stalks, sugarcane bagasse, drops and culls from fruits and
vegetables, prunings) and
hazardous and toxic
agricultural waste
(pesticides, insecticides
and herbicides, etc).

Types of
Agricultural
waste
 Diagram shows 2 different types of agro-
industrial wastes, i.e., agriculture residues
and industrial residues.
Agriculture residues can be further divided
into field residues and process residues.
Field residues are residues that present in the
field after the process of crop harvesting,
whereas the
 process residues are residues present
even after the crop is processed into alternate
valuable resource
Industrial wastes
A huge amount of organic residues and
related effluents are produced every year
through the food processing industries like
juice, chips, meat, confectionary, and
fruit industries. These organic residues can
be utilized for different energy sources.
fruit industrial wastes constituents have
potential to biochemically digested to produce
useful products like pdn of biogas, bio-ethanol.

Agro industrial wastes and their types The waste produced from food industries contains high
value of BOD, COD, and other suspended solids..
Characterization of AW depending on the agricultural activity ( Loehr, 1978)
Agricultural activity Types of wastes Method of disposal
Crop pdn and harvest Straw, stover Land application, burning, plowing
Fruit and vegetable Biological sludges, Land filling, animal feed, Land
processing trimings, peels, leaves, application, burning
stems, soil, seeds, pits
Sugar processing Biological sludges, pulp, Land filling, burning, composting,
lime mud, animal feed
Animal Production Blood, bones, feather, Land application, manure
litter, manures, liquid
effluents
Dairy pdt processing Biological sludges Land filling, Land spreading
Leather tanning Fleshings, hair, raw and By product recovery, Land filling,
tanned trimmings, lime & Land spreading
chrome sludge, grease
Rice production Bran, straw, hull / husk Feeds, mulch/ soil conditioner,
packaging material for glass, ceramics

Coconut production Stover, cobs, husk, leaves, Feeds, vinegar, activated carbon,
coco meal coir pdts.
According to Subba Rao [1993] and Caprara et al. [2011],
Agrowastes contain
 insoluble chemical constituents (e.g., cellulose and lignin) and
 soluble constituents (e.g., sugar,amino acids, and organic acids).

Other constituents are

fats, oil waxes, resins, pigment, protein, & mineral.

The agrowastes such as decaying part of plants are the primary

source of organic matter in soil.

Therefore, agro-wastes are the cheapest source that can be used by

farmers to improve the fertility of soil.
 Agricultural Waste management
If wastes are not properly handled they can pollute surface and
groundwater and contribute to air pollution.

The proper management of waste from agricultural operations can

contribute in a significant way to farm operations.

Waste management helps to maintain a healthy environment for

farm animals and can reduce the need for commercial fertilizers
while providing other nutrients needed for crop production.

The waste which is reduce, recycle and make it usable for different
purpose is a waste management.
An GRICULTURAL WASTE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (AWMS) consists of
six basic functions (fig.1 ):
• production
• collection
• transfer
• storage
• treatment
• utilization

For a specific system,

these functions may be
combined, repeated,
eliminated, or
rearranged as necessary

Fig. 1: Waste management

functions
(a) Production
Production is the function of the amount and nature of agricultural
waste generated by an agricultural enterprise.
The waste requires management if the quantity produced is sufficient
enough to become a resource concern.
 A complete analysis of production includes the kind, consistency,
volume, location, and timing of the waste produced.

Generation:-
 India is one of the richest country in agricultural resources.
Presently in India, annually 350 MT are organic wastes from
agricultural sources.
The major quantity of solid waste generated from agricultural sources
are sugarcane bagasse, paddy and wheat straw and husk, waste of
vegetables', food products, tea, oil production, jute fibres, groundnut
shell, wooden mill waste, coconut husk, cotton stalk, etc.
(b) Collection
Collection refers to the initial capture and gathering of the waste from
the point of origin or deposition to a collection point.
The AWMS plan should identify the method of collection, location of the
collection points, scheduling of the collection, labor requirements,
necessary equipment or structural facilities, management
and installation costs of the components, and the impact that collection
has on the consistency of the waste.

Waste like fruit and vegetable waste are collected form houses called
domestic waste
Waste collected form road street or side .
Collected waste like dry refuse and green waste, animal dung from
agricultural field.
(c) Transfer
Transfer refers to the movement and transportation of the waste
throughout the system.
It includes the transfer of the waste from the collection point to the
storage facility, to the treatment facility, and to the utilization site.

(d) Storage
Storage is the temporary containment of the waste.
The waste management system should identify the storage period;
required storage volume; type, estimated size, location, and
 installation cost of the storage facility;
management cost of the storage process; and
impact of the storage on the consistency of the waste.
(e) Treatment :
Treatment is any function designed to reduce the pollution potential or
modify the physical characteristics of the waste, such as moisture and TS
content, to facilitate more efficient and effective handling.
Manure treatment is comprised of physical, biological, and chemical unit
processes. It also includes activities that are sometimes considered
pretreatment, such as the separation of solids.
Various treatment process are performed on agricultural waste :-
When dealing with agricultural waste, we must follow health and safety
regulations .
We should provide written instructions for storing and disposing of each
type of waste we produce.
Treatment process:
 Composting
 Recycling
 Incineration
(f) Utilization
Utilization includes reusing and/or recycling of waste products. Agricultural
wastes may be used as a source of energy, bedding, mulch, organic
matter, or plant nutrients.
Properly treated, they can
be marketable.
A common practice is to
recycle the nutrients
in the waste through
land application
 The challenges for integration of organic
wastes into agriculture
 regional imbalances of nutrients
(e.g., not enough land on the farm
to apply nutrients produced by
animals on the farm),
imbalance of nutrients in organic
residues compare with fertilizer
the relatively low nutrient
concentration
the often bulky nature of
organic waste making it more
difficult to haul and spread
consistently
possible environmental concerns,
such as emission of ammonia and
other gases, odor, and pathogens.

Challenges or obstacles in going from ‘‘organic waste production’’

(inner circle) to ‘‘organic waste utilization’’.
Waste hierarchy
Waste hierarchy refers to 3 R’s:Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Waste minimization
efficiency is stated to be
better achieved applying
3Rs in a hierarchical
order- Reduce, Reuse
and Recycle .
The waste hierarchy
refers to the "3Rs" i.e.,
reduce, reuse and
recycle, which classify
waste management
strategies according to
their desirability.
The concept of minimizing waste reduces the quantity and ill-effects of waste generation
by reducing quantity of wastes, reusing the waste products with simple treatments and
recycling the wastes by using it as resources to produce same or modified products.

The aim of the waste hierarchy is to extract the maximum practical benefits
from products and to generate the minimum amount of waste.
 BASIS FOR
REUSE RECYCLE
COMPARISON
Meaning Reuse, means putting Recycle is a process,
an item to same or a wherein a used item is turned
different use, after it has into a new product, to
fulfilled its original reduce waste of potentially
function. useful material.
Form Does not change the A new product is created, so
original form of the form of product is changed.
product.
Harm to It does not harm It sometimes causes harm to
environment environment, in any way. environment.
Energy Saves energy Consumes a little amount of
energy, but saves it too.
Objective To elongate the life of To use basic material in the
article. creation of various products.
 Production :
Waste associated with
dairy operations Waste handling options—dairy
includes manure,
contaminated runoff,
milking house waste,
bedding, spilled feed,
and silage leachate

Transfer :
Pumps can be used to
transfer liquid waste as
needed. Solid and semisolid
waste can be transferred by
mechanical conveyance
equipment

Storage:
Milking house
waste and
contaminated Utilisation: Dairy waste is used as
runoff must bedding for livestock, marketed as
be stored as a Treatment : Liquid waste can be treated in an aerobic
lagoon, anaerobic lagoon. Energy production and odor compost, and used as an energy
liquid in a waste source, but the most common form of
storage pond or abatement can be accomplished through anaerobic
digestion or thermo-chemical conversion. utilization is through land application.
structure.
Zero waste agriculture is a type of sustainable agriculture which optimizes use of
the five natural kingdoms, i.e. plants, animals, bacteria, fungi and algae, to produce
biodiverse-food, energy and nutrients in a synergistic integrated cycle of profit making
processes where the waste of each process becomes the feedstock for another
process.
Zero Waste is a
philosophy that
encourages the
redesign of resource
life cycles so that all
products are reused.

The goal is for no

trash to be sent to
landfills, incinerators,
or the ocean.
The process
recommended is one
similar to the way that
resources are reused
in nature
To clarify the juice, milk of lime (calcium hydroxide) is added and the solids
(“filter mud”) are removed by filtration. The filtrate is evaporated under vacuum
to leave ~60% sugar solution.

Further evaporation yields the first crop (A-strike) of raw sugar. After the
crystals are collected by centrifugation, two more crops (B- and C-strikes) are
harvested from the mother liquors. The C-strike is not used commercially; it
becomes seed crystals for the next crop. The crystals of the A- and B-strikes
are the raw sugar—about 98% sucrose. The raw sugar is shipped to a
refinery, where it is recrystallized into table sugar—99.9% sucrose.

The final mother liquor is known as blackstrap molasses, and the remaining
plant material is bagasse. Each of the four components— sugar, molasses,
bagasse, and filter mud—has several uses and can lead to value-added
products
Corn stover consists of the leaves, stalks, and cobs of maize (corn) (Zea
mays ssp. mays L.) plants left in a field after harvest
Mature, ripe coconuts can be used as edible seeds, or processed for oil and plant milk
from the flesh, charcoal from the hard shell, and coir from the fibrous husk. Dried
coconut flesh is called copra, and the oil and milk derived from it are commonly used in
cooking – frying in particular – as well as in soaps and cosmetics.
The main by-products of rice are rice straw, rice husk or hull, and rice bran.

Rice straw is produced when harvesting paddy. Straw comes from what is left
on the plant after it is harvested and the grains are threshed.
Rice husks or hulls are generated during the first stage of rice milling, when
rough rice or paddy rice is husked.
Rice bran is produced during the second stage in milling, the whitening or
polishing process, when the bran layer is removed from the brown rice kernel.