The food problem has become a disturbing global problem for people and organizations; the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has thus taken on the challenge of bringing famine to zero level. The freedom and dignity of people have been attached to this dilemma; communities have thus come to know and believe that “they who do not have power, do not own his freedom”.
Returning to the title I have chosen for this article, what is agricultural waste? What does it have to do with feeding plants, animals, and people, so that it could contribute to the solution of the global food problem?
The concept of agricultural waste is not just limited to plant leftovers in the soil after harvest; it is everything left over in a farm and is related to its activities, including also animal leftovers. However, what does that have to do with nutrition?
Food is what nurtures to guarantee the survival of a creature (man, animal, or plant); it provides what is known as survival needs. Methods of transforming agricultural waste into edible food for animals have become easily obtainable. Plant agricultural waste left over after harvest is recycled and transformed into various forms of animal nutrition, including the introduction of leftovers to the animal in the form of loose or minced food, which acts as rough material that causes automatic satiation and facilitates digestion, as with hays, straws, and plant thrones. Green plant thrones are preserved to be offered to animal afterwards in the form of highly nutritional silage—green fodder preserved through fermentation. That is how animals are fed agricultural waste, but how do plants feed on plant waste?
Plants feed on agricultural waste, and so do humans, indirectly. Animal and plant agricultural wastes are combined to produce compost, a natural fertilizer that is an effective alternative to chemical fertilizers and regulators that are added to the soil. Moreover, compost is a connective material for the components of loose, grainy soil, such as sandy soil. As such, it elevates its fertility and productivity, which undoubtedly reflects positively on human and animal nutrition equally, not to mention providing healthy nutrition to the plants themselves.
There is another way to increase agricultural waste benefits by transforming it into compressed fodder known as pellets. This takes place through compression systems such as flat compressor systems or the most popular extruder system. Compression, regardless of its systems, is useful in raising fodder density and minimizing its volume, which reflects on transportation and exchange, as well as raising the value and flavor of fodder. As such, the purpose is fulfilled; waste has become fodder upon which animals (poultry and cattle) feed, which in turn are eaten by humans.
We conclude that agricultural waste is a national wealth and wasted treasures. Agricultural waste is nutrition for people, plants, and animals, if processed and transformed. It is nutrition for plants if transformed into fertilizer known as organic fertilizer or as compost. It can be used as direct nutrition for animals or transformed into balanced fodder in the form of pellets. When plants and animals are available, food is available for humans.