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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Waste Management in Agroecosystems
Volume 9 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2025.1556396
This article is part of the Research Topic Agri-Food Waste Utilization for Sustainable Future: Challenges and Opportunities View all 10 articles
Transforming Rice Straw into Eco-Friendly Growing Medium for Microgreens: A Solution for Agricultural Waste Management
Provisionally accepted
KIRTI SAURABH 1*
Himadri Shekhar Roy 2
Kumari Shubha 1
Prem Kumar Sundaram 1 Ved Prakash 1 Tanmay Kumar Koley 1 Anirban Mukherjee 1 Bikash Sarkar 1 A. K. Singh 1 Anup Das 1 Ashutosh Upadhyaya 1 Pawan Jeet 1 Sanjeev Kumar 1 Ravi Ranjan Singh 1- 1 ICAR-Research Complex for Eastern Region, Patana, Bihar, India
- 2 Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi, India
Rice straw burning poses a significant environmental challenge in India, contributing to air pollution and climate change. This study explores the potential of repurposing rice straw as a sustainable growing medium for microgreen cultivation, addressing agricultural waste management and substrate sustainability. Pretreatment with sodium hydroxide (NaOH) significantly improved the physical and chemical properties of rice straw, reducing ash content from 20.05% (untreated) to 7.10%-11.10% (1%-7% NaOH treatment) and enhancing water holding capacity to 673%, comparable to cocopeat (891%) and superior to vermiculite (389%).Microgreens of Amaranthus, cabbage, and cauliflower grown on rice straw exhibited competitive growth rates, with cabbage achieving the greatest plant length (6.2 cm) and fresh weight (59.83 mg plant⁻¹). Although vermiculite supported higher levels of essential micronutrients such as Fe, Zn, and Mn, rice straw demonstrated exceptional performance in plant growth and biomass production. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) linked rice straw to plant weight and length, while vermiculite correlated with micronutrient concentrations.With fortification, rice straw's properties as a growing medium can be further enhanced, ensuring biomass production comparable to conventional substrates. This study establishes pretreated rice straw as a cost-effective, eco-friendly solution to reduce environmental pollution and promote sustainable microgreen cultivation.
Keywords: residue burning, Rice straw, Principal Component Analysis, Microgreens, Micronutrients
Received: 06 Jan 2025; Accepted: 04 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 SAURABH, Roy, Shubha, Sundaram, Prakash, Koley, Mukherjee, Sarkar, Singh, Das, Upadhyaya, Jeet, Kumar and Singh. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
KIRTI SAURABH, ICAR-Research Complex for Eastern Region, Patana, 800014, Bihar, India
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