Building a Circular Bionutrient Economy
As the world population grows, the demand for food production also increases. This is leading to the depletion of natural resources, including soil fertility. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in building a circular bionutrient economy. This aims to create a sustainable food system that nourishes the soil, produces nutritious food, and reduces waste.
Building a circular bionutrient economy allows for the transformation of organic wastes into products including fertilizers and pesticides, and links directly to local agricultural enterprises that utilize these products. This model is a solution framework that tackles global challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss, waste, and pollution.
What is a Circular Bionutrient Economy?
The circular economy system is an alternative to a traditional linear economy production model (make, use, dispose). It allows resources to be kept in use for as long as possible including sharing, reusing, recycling and repairing existing materials and products.
A circular bionutrient economy allows for the transformation of organic waste into products. Further, it includes organic fertilizers, pesticides and direct links to local agricultural enterprises that utilize these products. Global challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, waste, and pollution are addressed by this model.
To build a circular bionutrient economy, it’s essential to focus on regenerating the soil. Healthy soil is a fundamental part of sustainable food production. It’s important to rebuild soil fertility by adopting regenerative agriculture practices that improve soil health and mitigate climate change, such as crop rotation, cover cropping, and reducing tillage. This helps to increase the soil’s organic matter content, improve soil structure, and increase soil biodiversity.
The second aspect of a circular bionutrient economy is creating nutrient-dense food. This involves growing crops that are rich in essential vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients. One way to achieve this is by planting a diverse range of crops, including perennial crops, such as fruit trees, shrubs, and vines. This approach not only provides a variety of nutrient-dense foods but also helps to increase biodiversity and reduce the risk of crop failure due to disease or pests.
Finally, reducing food waste is another important aspect of a circular bionutrient economy. By reducing food waste, we can minimize the amount of organic matter sent to landfills and instead use it to build soil fertility. This can be achieved by composting food waste and using it to amend the soil or by feeding it to livestock and using their manure as fertilizer.
The Circular bionutrient Economy Workshop
GivingHope Foundation (GHF) was honoured to attend the first East Africa Circular Bionutrient Economy workshop (10-11 January 2022) that was held in Kisumu, Kenya. It was hosted by Poverty and Health Integrated Solutions (PHIS) and Cornell University at Kisumu Hotel. GHF was represented by the CEO and the Executive Director. In attendance were officials for Kisumu County, and academia such as UC Berkeley, Maseno University, University of Nairobi, and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology. Also in attendance were research institutions including the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). There were also several social enterprises and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs). In total there were over 32 individuals in attendance.
Even tough I have worked with biochar for over 13 years, I got a big eye-opener at the Circular Bionutrients Economy Workshop. I learnt that different temperatures are needed to produce different qualities of biochar depending on the desired application.
The Circular Bionutrients Economy Workshop
The first day of the workshop included launching the Circular Economy Empowerment Center. There was a tour of a black soldier fly farm, the Kon-tik biochar kiln and demonstration plots for different mixtures of organic fertilisers. The second day included setting objectives, and intensive breakout group discussions and presentations. Discussions focused on hurdles to implementing a circular bionutrients economy and proposals for the next steps. Furthermore, the Circular Bionutrients Economy Network (CBEN) will be established. This directly relates to GHF’s mission of helping smallholder farmers in rural Africa grow their way out of extreme poverty. We will work be training the farmers in making organic fertilizers and pesticides as well as applying biochar for soil amendment.
The objectives of the workshop were to:
- Investigate the agri-value chain of waste collection from processing to fertilizer production, marketing, and sale.
- Bring together ministries, NGOs, for-profit
sanitation and fertilizer companies, and research/teaching institutions
(universities and research institutions. - Demystifying ourselves and our work to each other in
order to work together more easily throughout the waste management and
biofertilizer agri-value chain - Learn about key barriers to implementation for each sector
- Create a social, creative, innovation-spawning environment to act as a foundation for future collaborations.
How to Build a Circular Bionutrient Economy?
Building a circular bionutrient economy requires a collaborative effort from everyone involved in the food system, including farmers, consumers, policymakers, and businesses. Here are some key steps that can be taken to build a circular bionutrient economy:
Invest in regenerative agriculture practices: Farmers can adopt regenerative agriculture practices such as crop rotation, cover cropping. Additionally, they can reduce tillage to improve soil health, increase biodiversity, and reduce the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.
Support local food systems: Consumers can support local food systems by buying from local farmers’ markets or joining a community-supported agriculture (CSA) program. This helps to reduce food miles, support local economies, and provide consumers with access to fresh, nutritious food.
Implement food waste reduction strategies: Policymakers can implement food waste reduction strategies, such as composting programs, to reduce the amount of organic matter sent to landfills and increase soil fertility. Businesses can also play a role by reducing food waste in their supply chains and donating excess food to food banks.
Create a supportive policy environment: Policymakers can create a supportive policy environment that incentivizes farmers to adopt regenerative agriculture practices, promotes local food systems, and encourages food waste reduction.
Build partnerships: Building partnerships between farmers, businesses, and consumers is crucial to creating a circular bionutrient economy. Collaboration can help to identify opportunities to reduce waste, increase soil health, and create nutrient-dense food.
Conclusion
Building a circular bionutrient economy is critical for creating a sustainable food system that nourishes both people and the planet. By regenerating soil health, creating nutrient-dense food, and reducing waste, we can create a closed-loop system.