Valorisation of natural resources and the need for economic and sustainability assessment : the case of cocoa pod husk in Indonesia
Abstract
The uptake of innovative technologies and practices in agriculture aimed at the valorisation of natural resources can be scant in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs). Integration of financial viability assessments with farmers and environmental evaluations can help to understand some aspects of the low uptakes of innovations. Using the case study of Cocoa Pod Husk (CPH) valorisation in Indonesia, we provide insights into (i) a choice modelling method to assess the economic viability of CPH valorisation and (ii) an agronomic trial assessing the consequences on soil quality of diverting CPH from its role as a natural fertilizer. The economic viability assessment suggested that farmers require higher levels of compensation than might be expected to collect or process CPH (a small proportion of farmers would undertake all processing activities for 117 GBP/t CPH). The agronomic trial concluded that CPH plays only a minor role in the maintenance of soil phosphorus, calcium and magnesium, but it plays an important role for crop potassium. CPH removal would reduce the partial balances for carbon and nitrogen by 15.6% and 19.6%, respectively. Diversion of CPH from current practices should consider the long-term effects on soil quality, especially because it might create increased reliance on mineral fertilizers.
Citation
Picchioni , F , Warren , G P , Lambert , S , Balcombe , K , Robinson , J S , Srinivasan , C , D. Gomez , L , Faas , L , Westwood , N J , Chatzifragkou , A , Charalampopoulos , D & Shaw , L J 2020 , ' Valorisation of natural resources and the need for economic and sustainability assessment : the case of cocoa pod husk in Indonesia ' , Sustainability , vol. 12 , no. 21 , 8962 . https://doi.org/10.3390/su12218962
Publication
Sustainability
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
2071-1050Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Description
The authors would like to acknowledge the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and Mars Wrigley Confectionery for their financial support on a collaborative Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) project entitled “Development of novel value chain from cocoa pod husks in Indonesia: Technological, environmental and socio-economic challenges of a value chain” (BB/P022995/1).Collections
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