This document discusses agro-residues and their potential utilization. It defines agro-residues as by-products generated after harvesting and processing agricultural crops. Major agro-residues include rice straw, wheat straw, bagasse, and cornhusk. Currently, most residues are burned or dumped, but they represent an abundant, renewable resource. The document examines using agro-residues for applications like textiles. It highlights bagasse's suitability due to its high cellulose content. Developing agro-residue value chains could provide farmers additional income while benefiting the environment. Further research is needed to extract high quality fibers from residues like bagasse and cornhusk.

1. Agro-residues and their
Utilization
S K Singh
Centre for Energy Studies
IIT Delhi

2. Introduction
 In India, agriculture provides 54 per cent employment in rural as well as urban
India. After the isolation of the main agricultural product, abundant solid
residue is generated. Worldwide, it is common practice to dump residue as
garbage.
 Rice, wheat, sugarcane, soybean, corn, banana, pineapple, bamboo and okra
are a few examples of crops that generate considerable residues.

3. What is Agro- Residue?
 Agricultural residue or agro-residue describes all organic material produced as by-
products after harvesting and processing agricultural crops.
 Agro-residues are annually renewable and a low cost source for natural cellulosic
fibers. They are of two types: Field residues and Process residues.
 Field residues: Materials left in an agricultural field after the crop has been harvested.
Examples include pineapple leaves, banana pseudo stems and leaves, cornhusk, cotton
seed pods, kapok seed pods and cotton stalks.

4.  Process residues: Materials left after the crop is processed into a
usable resource. After isolation of the primary or main
agricultural product, a huge volume of residue is generated
simultaneously. Examples of process residues are bagasse, pea
peel, wheat and rice straw.

5. Availability of Agro-Residues
 Quantifying the amount and type of agricultural residues generated in
each crop category is difficult
 There is a wide variability in the generation of crop residues and their
use across different regions of the country depending on the crops
grown, cropping intensity and productivity.
 Generation of crop residues is highest in Uttar Pradesh followed by
Punjab and Maharashtra.
 The amount of surplus crop residue available in India is about 141
million tons a year, out of which 92 mt is burned each year. Globally,
biomass production from agriculture is pegged at 140 billion metric
tons reported in Feb. 2019.

6.  While a maximum crop residue is used as fodder, fuel for domestic
and raw material for different industrial purposes as energy and paper
production.
 Sugarcane tops is generally surplus residue, which are burnt after the
harvesting by the farmers in the fields. Other crops as oilseeds,
pulses, chilli and cotton are generate surplus residue which is used as
fuel.
 There is also available potential biomass of bamboo plant of 4 million
metric ton.
 The surplus crop residue density as per square kilometer availability
was found maximum in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana & Tamil
Nadu

7. Present utilization of Agro-residues
 Conventionally, almost all agro-residues have been burnt for
energy generation in boilers. But being low-calorific fuel, they
generate air pollution. Currently, they are generally disposed of
either by composting or by burning in the fields.
 In a developing country like India, every possible effort should be
made for the proper utilization of these agro-residues as they are
rich in cellulose and renewable.
 As stock is abundant, the price of agro-residues is cheaper than
that of conventional cellulosic fibres like cotton, jute and linen.

9. Conventional use of Agro-residues
 Conventionally, agro-residues are used for many purposes which
are often are site-specific. Depending on how and where the
crop is harvested, the ultimate use of agricultural residues
varies.
 Besides being used as fuel, other uses of agro-residues are as
fodder, fertiliser, fibre, and feedstock.
 As fertilizer and soil conditioner, ex. - coconut coir dust
 Rice husk has many uses
• As a fuel
• In steel industry
• Animal bedding fibre

10. Agro-residues: Alternative fibres for textile
industry
 The Indian textile industry is primarily cotton-based.
• Cotton being the main component.
• Economically & ecologically expensive crop to produce
• 5 of the nastiest pesticides used i.e. Cyanide, dicofol, naled, and
propargite in its produce
• Thereby, cheap produce are often carcinogenic

11. Agro-residues: Alternative fibres for textile
industry
 There is a requirement of substitutes to conventional cellulosic
fibres, which are environmentally expensive to produce.
 From the agricultural and regional development perspectives,
building a sustainable agricultural residue supply chain could
provide diversification and additional revenue for agriculture
producers

13. Agro-residues: Alternative fibres for textile
industry
 Besides the availability of pure cellulose, other factors which influence the
development and utilization of these lingo cellulosic in textile industry are: `
a. Ability to be spun b. Sufficient quantity c. Cost or economy of production
 The biochemical composition of agro-residues varies owing to the composition of the
crop from which they are sourced and the crop-specific environmental conditions they
are grown in.
 The chemical and physical properties of some non-wood fibres are influenced by fibre
growth time (days after planting), botanical classification of fibre, stalk height,
environmental conditions, rainfall, etc.

14. Agro-residues: Alternative fibres for textile
industry
 Bagasse and bamboo are two important stalk agro-residues, and
cornhusk and banana leaves are important leaf agro-residues.
The cellulose and lignin composition of the four residues testifies
that bagasse holds the highest amount of processable cellulose
(57per cent) amongst all other residues.

15. Bagasse
 One of the largest cellulosic agro-industrial by-products is sugarcane
bagasse (or bagasse).
 The quality of bagasse is dependent on the variety of cane, age of cutting,
agronomic and soil conditions and the extent of crushing and milling
operations carried out.
 It is a ligno-cellulosic residue (by-product) of the sugar industry and used by
the sugar factories themselves as fuel for boilers.
 India is a major producer of sugarcane bagasse which is an annual process
residue of sugar mills apart from wheat and rice straw.
 Crude bagasse contains about 65-70per cent useful fibre and about 30-
35per cent pith, dirt and other water soluble material.

16. Bagasse
 For every 10 tonnes of sugarcane crushed, a sugar factory produces nearly 3
tonnes of wet bagasse.
 Studies reveal that about 54 million tonnes of dry bagasse are produced
annually throughout the world.
 Bagasse is considered as a rich natural resource when compared to other
agricultural residues because of its high yield and annual regeneration
capacity.
 The biochemical composition represents bagasse as a potential and abundant
cellulose resource

17. Bagasse
 The extraction of fibres was done by alkalization. Collected bagasse
was subjected to NaOH under specific pressure
 The extracted sugarcane rind fibre was used for making geotextile
mats for soil erosion control.
 Advantage - sugarcane fibre mats had higher water resistance, lower
light penetration, and were less flammable than commercial
geotextile products.

18. Socio-Economic Perspective
 There are regions where these abundant agro-residues are still a
waste. These valuable agricultural residuals are being burnt in
lack of any alternative commercial use of them.
 Farmers are losing additional income while their counterparts in
the region where small and medium scale handloom industries
exist and significantly contribute in income generation have a
scattered supply chain
 Exploring a feasible application of agro-residues will lead to
environmental as well as socio-economic benefits to the farmer
• Thereby increasing farm income

19. Socio-Economic Perspective
 Although textile applications offer a relatively high value addition and
a huge market for consumption of fibres from agro-residues, they
require fibres of high quality.
 Versatile application of agro-residues in textile industry depends on
the fineness and strength of fibres produced.
 Extraction of quality fibres depends to a large extent on extraction
techniques employed. Therefore, existing extraction methods need to
be supplemented with robust techniques and machinery to provide
the agro-residues like bagasse and cornhusk with value worth
advocating.

20. References
 1. Pib.nic.in
 2. Ngt.nic.in
 3. Gbis.ces.iisc.ernet.in
 4. Bioenergyconsult.com
 5. Sustainabledevelopment.un.org
 6. Calrecycle.ca.gov
 7. Cgpl.iisc.ernet.in