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Foong SY, Chan YH, Loy ACM, How BS, Tamothran AM, Yip AJK, Liew RK, Peng W, Alstrup AK, Lam SS, Sonne C. The nexus between biofuels and pesticides in agroforestry: Pathways toward United Nations sustainable development goals. ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH 2022; 214:113751. [PMID: 35753369 DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2022.113751] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2022] [Revised: 06/14/2022] [Accepted: 06/19/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
The growth of global population continuously increases the demands for agroforestry-derived products, underpinning a sustainable growth of energy matrix in the sectors of food security, transportation, and industrial is momentous. The high demand for the sustainable energy sources has led to an increase in the application of pesticides associated with growing crops for the production of biofuel. In 2019, the global consumption of pesticides was 4.2 million tonnes. Case studies on life cycle assessment (LCA) of pesticides showed that toxicity is the major severe impact of pesticide usage, contributing to human toxicity (∼70%) and freshwater eco-toxicity (>50%). This alarming situation needs a solution as conventional pesticides pose various negative impacts to human and the environment, rendering the biofuel production process unsustainable. In this review, we focus on the interaction between pesticide use, biofuel production, food security for a sustainable balancing in between government benefits, environmental, and human health, aiming to track the implications and impact to the global efforts towards achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Even though, there are strict government regulations and legislations pertaining to pesticide use, and policies devised as guidelines for agroforestry sectors to implement and monitor these measures, the discrepancies still exist in between national and supranational entities. To cater the above issue, many efforts have been made to upscale the biofuel production, for example, the United States, Brazil, China and Indonesia have ventured into biofuels production from non-food-crops based feedstock while other developing nations are rapidly catching up. In this perspective, a sustainable nexus between Biofuels-Pesticides-Agroforestry (BPA) is essential to create a sustainable roadmap toward the UN SDGs, to fulfilling the energy, food, and land security. The contribution of technologies in BPA includes genetic modified crops, integrated pest and weed management with controlled release pesticides, use of nano-biopesticides is being reviewed. As a whole, the concept of biofuel processing complex (BPC) and farmers upskilling, together with the effective implementation of efficient policies and Internet of Things (IoT) would be the key to drive the BPA nexus towards fulfilment of SDGs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shin Ying Foong
- Henan Province Engineering Research Center for Biomass Value-added Products, School of Forestry, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450002, China; Pyrolysis Technology Research Group, Institute of Tropical Aquaculture and Fisheries (AKUATROP), Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030 Kuala Nerus, Terengganu, Malaysia
| | - Yi Herng Chan
- PETRONAS Research Sdn. Bhd. (PRSB), Lot 3288 & 3289, off Jalan Ayer Itam, Kawasan Institusi Bangi, 43000 Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia
| | | | - Bing Shen How
- Biomass Waste-to-Wealth Special Interest Group, Research Centre for Sustainable Technologies, Faculty of Engineering, Computing and Science, Swinburne University of Technology, Jalan Simpang Tiga, 93350 Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia.
| | | | - Andrew Jun Kit Yip
- Faculty of Ocean Engineering Technology and Informatics, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030 Kuala Nerus, Terengganu, Malaysia
| | - Rock Keey Liew
- NV Western PLT, 208B, Second Floor, Macalister Road, 10400 Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia
| | - Wanxi Peng
- Henan Province Engineering Research Center for Biomass Value-added Products, School of Forestry, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450002, China
| | - Aage Ko Alstrup
- Aarhus University Hospital, Department of Nuclear Medicine and PET, Palle Juul-Jensens Boulevard 99, DK-8200 Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Su Shiung Lam
- Henan Province Engineering Research Center for Biomass Value-added Products, School of Forestry, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450002, China; Pyrolysis Technology Research Group, Institute of Tropical Aquaculture and Fisheries (AKUATROP), Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030 Kuala Nerus, Terengganu, Malaysia; Sustainability Cluster, School of Engineering, University of Petroleum & Energy Studies, Dehradun, Uttarakhand 248007, India.
| | - Christian Sonne
- Henan Province Engineering Research Center for Biomass Value-added Products, School of Forestry, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450002, China; Sustainability Cluster, School of Engineering, University of Petroleum & Energy Studies, Dehradun, Uttarakhand 248007, India; Department of Bioscience, Arctic Research Centre (ARC), Aarhus University, Faculty of Science and Technology, Frederiksborgvej 399, PO Box 358, DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark.
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