Sustainable Management of Agro-Food Waste - Chapter 6: Transforming agricultural residues to value-added products: Waste to wealth

Utilization of agricultural residues as raw materials for production of value-added products has gained significant attention in recent years. This holds great promise for transforming waste into valuable resources, promoting sustainable agriculture, and addressing global challenges of resource scarcity and waste management. Agricultural residues, such as crop straw, husks, and stalks, are abundantly available as by-products of agricultural practices and are often treated as waste. However, these residues contain complex organic compounds, which can be converted into varieties of high-value products when passed through appropriate processing techniques. With rich content of carbohydrates, lignocellulose, and bioactive compounds, the agricultural residues serve as valuable precursors for the synthesis of biofuels, biopolymers, platform, and other value-added chemicals. They also serve as potential source of antioxidants, dietary fibers, and functional ingredients, with huge demand into food, pharmaceutical, and nutraceutical industries. In addition, utilization of agricultural residues not only offer opportunities for revenue generation, it also contributes to waste reduction, mitigates greenhouse gas emissions, and promotes sustainable agricultural system. This chapter explores the potential of agricultural residues in the production of value-added products and highlights the technologies and processes employed to transform agricultural residues into value-added products. Further research and development efforts, coupled with supportive policies and collaborations between academia, industry, and government agencies, are crucial to realize the full potential of agricultural residues as valuable raw materials and drive the transition toward a more circular and sustainable agricultural economy.