Circular Practices in the Agricultural Sector: Current Challenges and Opportunities

The agricultural sector, a keystone of global food security and economic stability, is facing escalating challenges from climate change, environmental degradation, and resource scarcity. However, the growing demand for food due to population expansion and improved breeding techniques has led to a tremendous increase in crop production and the generation of massive amounts of agri-waste worldwide. Poor management of agri-waste poses significant environmental, economic, and health risks. Additionally, failing to utilise agri-waste efficiently misses opportunities for resource recovery and value addition, such as producing biofertilisers, biochar, biofuels, and bioenergy. Circular practices, with the primary aim of reuse, recycling, reducing, recovering, and regenerating, are crucial for transforming agri-waste into valuable resources, supporting environmental, economic, and human health. These practices ensure that waste is seen as a resource and emphasise resource recovery, waste minimisation, and sustainability, along with developing value-added products or services from agri-waste with high market value. However, circular practices face key challenges, including integrating circular principles into traditional agricultural practices, limited access to funding, lack of infrastructure, limited market demand, negative public perception, the economic feasibility of circular innovations, and the need for supportive policy frameworks and stakeholder engagement. By fostering collaboration among farmers, researchers, policymakers, and industry stakeholders, the agricultural sector can transition towards a more sustainable and resilient future. Therefore, this chapter explores the current landscape of circular practices in agriculture, providing examples of creating wealth from agri-waste and successful entrepreneurial case studies, further highlighting both the challenges and opportunities that define this evolving paradigm.