Agriculture and the Circular Economy

The agricultural sector like most sectors, requires inputs and energy and produces outputs in the form of food and wastes.  As farmer look to adopt more intensive farming practices, there is more dependency on the use of external materials such as nutrients, feeds, and pesticides and there is an increased generation of wastes.  Most farmers are good stewards of the land, but changing practices put pressure on material consumption and waste. Therefore within the context of the circular economy we need to find ways to reduce the introduction of non-natural nutrients, to adopt land-use practices  and to realise value from the wastes that are generated.