From Waste to Wealth in the Agri-Food System

Dr Sangita Mohanty presently works as a senior scientist in the Crop Production Division of ICAR-National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack. Dr Mohanty has obtained her masters and PhD degrees in Soil Science & Agricultural Chemistry from the premiere Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. She has bagged Indian Council of Agricultural Research-Junior Research Fellowship and Indian Agricultural Research Institute Fellowship for pursuing Msc and and PhD programmes respectively. She has been awarded Desai and Biswas Gold Medal for academic excellence in MSc. Programme in the year 2001 from Division of Soil Science & Agricultural chemistry, IARI, New Delhi. Her major area of work is carbon and nitrogen dynamics in soil –plant atmospheric continuum in relation to greenhouse gas emission, nitrogen loss and use efficiency, and climate resilient agriculture. Her major contributions include development and standardization of methodology for measuring reactive N loss from rice field and devising technology for enhancing fertilizer N use efficiency and reducing agricultural N pollution. Her research works in several aspects of soil quality, greenhouse gas emission, climate change, nitrogen management have been well documented in more than 75 research papers published in journals of international national and repute. Dr Supriya Priyadarsani works as a Scientist (Agricultural Structures & Process Engineering) at Indian Council of Agricultural (ICAR)- National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack, Odisha. The core area of research is milling standardization of different rice varieties which highly influences the head rice recovery of the rice, development of value added products from rice byproducts like bran, husk and straw, estimation of GHG emissions from consumption of different food items. During the past six years of research career, she has worked on development of rice-based fish feed, milling standardization of nearly 100 varieties of paddy as well as estimated the carbon and energy footprint of popularly consumed food items across India. She has conducted trainings on post-harvest techniques for rice byproducts utilization through rice bran oil extraction, rice bran uses for value added products & fish feed and cattle feed pellets, rice husk for fuel balls, incense sticks and rice straw for mushroom production in different rural and tribal areas of Odisha. Her core area of research is now based on agro waste utilization to gain circular economy for the rural farmers of Odisha.Dr. Kambaska Kumar Behera is a distinguished academician and researcher published more than 105 research papers, book chapters and eight books of international andnational repute. Born in Odisha, studied at Utkal University for my M. Phil and Ph.D. degrees and had the distinction of DBT-Post Doctoral Fellowship. He has worked in different research capacity in various National Research Institute of India viz. CSIR, ICAR and NIT and is presently working as Associate Professor, Department of Agricultural Engineering, GIFT, Autonomous, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, IndiaHis contribution to the scientific advancement is reflected in a good number of quality publications in journals of international and national repute. Dr. Jaiprakash Bisen holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from the ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, with specialized expertise in commodity outlook modeling and the impact assessment of agricultural technologies. Currently, he serves as a scientist at ICAR-Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute (IASRI), New Delhi, where his research focuses on commodity outlook analysis of key pulses in India and on the socioeconomic, physical, and trade implications of using maize as a raw material for bioethanol production. Before his tenure at IASRI, Dr. Bisen was affiliated with the ICAR-National Rice Research Institute (NRRI) in Cuttack, Odisha, where he spent six years dedicated to studying the socioeconomic conditions of rice farmers, assessing agricultural technology impacts, and advancing methodologies in varietal area estimation. His work at NRRI included refining varietal area assessment techniques using breeder seed statistics and evaluating the adoption and distribution of rice varieties developed by NRRI across rice-producing regions. Dr. Bisen's contributions were instrumental in improving the livelihoods of farmers in Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, and West Bengal through the promotion of high-yielding, climate-resilient rice varieties tailored to these areas. Dr. Anjani Kumar, an IIT Kharagpur alumnus, first time established relationship between soil water potential as measured by tensiometer and greenhouse gas emission (GHG) emission under rice ecology in Eastern India to estimate net global warming potential. Predictive models based on path modelling approach developed by him clarifies the effect of varying atmospheric CO2 levels on nitrous oxide emission from rice fields. For enhancing water productivity in rice cultivation under water limited condition, he has developed Customized Color Coded Tensiometer, NRRI- Aerobic Rice Moisture Sensor and Eco-friendly Irrigation Alert System. As a team member, he was actively engaged in developing customized leaf color chart for real time nitrogen management, climate-smart resource conservation technologies, urea briquette applicator, a visual diagnostic kit for identification of nutrient disorders and mobile based apps like “riceXpert” and “CsaXpert” for better diagnosis of biotic and abiotic stress in rice. He has been conferred with IPNI Award 2013 and Nanaji Deshmukh ICAR Award for Outstanding Interdisciplinary Team research in Agriculture and Allied Sciences 2020 for his work on eco-friendly integrated nutrient management technologies in rice-based cropping systems.

• 1. The Circular Economy Framework for Agriculture2. Mapping Waste landscape in the Agri-Food System3. Technology for Waste Minimization and Resource Recovery in Agri-Food System4. Transforming Farm Waste and By-products into High-Value Sustainable Resources in the Agri-Food Chain5. Nurturing Soil Health through Circular Economy Practices6. Sustainable Packaging and Circularity in Food Supply Chains7. Renewable Energy Integration in the Circular Agri-Food System8. Environmental and Economic Evaluation of Circular Agri-Food Systems: A Comprehensive Approach of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Techno-Economic Analysis (TEA)9. Circular Economy and Resource Efficiency in Emerging Economies: Regional Case Studies and Global Perspectives10. Strengthening Industry-Agriculture Linkages for a Circular Economy11. Circular Economy in the Agri-Food System for Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation12. Reducing Carbon Footprints through Integrated Farming Systems and Circular Economy13. The Impact of Consumer Choices: Promoting Circular Economy Practices through Awareness and Behavior14. Scaling Circular Economy in Agriculture and Food Systems: Challenges, Opportunities, and Pathways to Close the Loop