Tropentag, September 10 - 12, 2025, Bonn "Reconciling land system changes with planetary health"

Adoption of microbial biotechnology in sustainable agriculture and environmental remediation in the circular economy

Université de Buea, Cameroon

Abstract

The persistent food shortage and associated hunger, and poverty crisis plaguing many tropical African countries is as a result of poor performance of the agricultural sector. This phenomenon is attributed mainly to the use of unsustainable agricultural production practices such as abuse of inorganic inputs and poor management of organic wastes. This has rekindled concerns with regard to land degradation as well as human and environmental health. Instructively, understanding of waste is shifting from being material requiring collection, handling and disposal to now embracing sustainable resource management in the circular economy. Microbial biotechnology is a promising option to facilitate the modification/transformation of huge amounts of assorted organic wastes generated by all categories of farms, agro-allied industries and municipalities to useful bio-organic resources in agricultural production systems, energy production and environmental management. The focus here is on the use of soil beneficial microbes in the formulation of biofertilisers, bio-organic fertilisers for solubilisation/mineralisation of plant nutrients in agronomic production systems as well as degradation of recalcitrant lignin-rich organic wastes. Some microbes also find beneficial use in remediation of polluted ecosystems. As a case study, it discusses the potential of microbial biotechnology in tropical Africa vis-a-vis the prevailing relatively rich biodiversity and degraded agroecologies.

Keywords: Bio-organic fertilisers, biotechnology, circular economy, remediation, sustainable agriculture, tropical Africa

Contact Address: Solange Dzekewong Ndzeshala Epse Takwi, Université de Buea, Buea, Cameroon, e-mail: solleydzeyahoo.com