The research team, led by Clara U. Nwankwo and corresponding author Michael E. Ikehi, set out to answer a practical question that has grown more urgent in recent years. Global disruptions to fertilizer supply chains have sent prices soaring and left many farmers in developing regions unable to afford synthetic nutrients at the recommended rates. At the same time, demand for carrot foliage as livestock feed has been rising, turning what was once agricultural waste into a marketable secondary product. The authors frame this as a dual-market challenge: optimize nutrients for the taproot, optimize them for the leaves, or find a middle path. Their experiment was designed to test all three possibilities under identical conditions so the outcomes could be compared directly.

The methodology was deliberately straightforward. The researchers used a completely randomized design with three replicates, growing the Kuroda carrot variety over a 12-week period in four treatment groups. One group served as an unamended control, receiving no nutrient additions at all. A second received poultry manure, representing the organic option. A third received NPK 15:15:15, a balanced synthetic fertilizer supplying nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium in equal proportions, representing the inorganic option. The fourth received a combination of poultry manure and NPK, representing integrated nutrient management. Data were analyzed using means, and analysis of variance was applied to test the null hypotheses at the 0.05 significance level, the conventional threshold in agricultural science for judging whether differences between treatments are likely to be real rather than the product of random variation.

When it came to what happens above the ground, the integrated treatment dominated. Carrots grown with the combined poultry manure and NPK treatment reached an average height of 34.39 millimeters, taller than those grown with inorganic fertilizer alone at 28.54 millimeters, organic manure alone at 32.35 millimeters, and the untreated control at 26.39 millimeters. Leaf biomass followed the same pattern, with the integrated treatment producing a value of 12.23, compared with 11.37 for organic manure, 9.10 for inorganic fertilizer, and 8.44 for the control. The pattern makes agronomic sense: organic manures release nutrients slowly as they mineralize, while synthetic fertilizers deliver an immediate pulse, and combining the two gives plants both a steady background supply and readily available nitrogen during peak vegetative growth.

Below the ground, however, the ranking flipped. Carrots grown with inorganic NPK fertilizer alone developed the longest taproots, averaging 17.86 millimeters, and the heaviest taproots, averaging 59.52 grams. The integrated treatment came in second at 14.84 millimeters and 54.15 grams, followed by organic manure at 13.35 millimeters and 42.48 grams, and the control at 11.55 millimeters and 31.25 grams. In other words, the synthetic fertilizer delivered roughly 90 percent more root weight than doing nothing at all, while the organic treatment delivered about 36 percent more. For a farmer whose income depends on selling graded taproots at market, those numbers carry real economic weight, and they explain why synthetic fertilizers have remained attractive even as their cost and availability have become less predictable.

The statistical analysis added an important layer of nuance to these numbers. While the integrated treatment produced numerically higher values for leaf biomass, the differences among treatments for that parameter did not reach statistical significance at the 0.05 level. Root tuber performance, by contrast, showed a statistically significant difference among treatments, meaning the advantage of inorganic fertilizer for taproot length and weight is unlikely to be a fluke of this particular experiment. The authors are careful to acknowledge this distinction, and it matters for how the findings should be used. A farmer choosing a fertilizer strategy to boost foliage would be making a decision on weaker statistical ground than one choosing a strategy to boost roots, and future replication studies could help firm up the biomass conclusions.

One of the more intriguing results concerns the organic treatment. Although integrated nutrient management produced the tallest plants and the highest leaf biomass score, the authors note that organic manure application alone was associated with a higher optimum harvestable root yield in their interpretation of the results, positioning it as a viable option for growers who want to avoid synthetic inputs altogether. Poultry manure is widely available and inexpensive in many parts of the global South, often generated as a byproduct of the region’s rapidly expanding poultry industry. Recycling it onto vegetable fields closes a nutrient loop, reduces waste disposal problems, and improves soil organic matter over time, benefits that extend beyond a single season’s yield even if they are harder to capture in a 12-week trial.

The broader context of the study is what gives it its urgency. The authors write that amid global fertilizer supply chain disruptions and the emerging dual-market demand for carrot taproots and leafy biomass, optimizing nutrient management is now essential for sustainability. Imported synthetic fertilizer exposes farmers in the global South to currency fluctuations, shipping delays, and geopolitical shocks that they have little power to influence. Integrated nutrient management offers a partial hedge, because a farmer who can meet part of the crop’s nutrient demand from local manure needs to purchase less synthetic product, reducing both cost and risk. The study’s results suggest that this hedge does not necessarily cost much in yield terms, since the integrated treatment was statistically comparable or superior in most measured parameters.

The dual-market angle is equally significant for the economics of smallholder carrot production. If the goal is cultivating carrots primarily for leafy biomass destined for livestock feed, the integrated treatment emerges as the optimal strategy in this experiment, maximizing the above-ground vegetative parameters that define that harvest. If the goal is the traditional taproot market, inorganic fertilizer remains the top performer, though organic manure offers a respectable and more affordable alternative. This goal-oriented framing is a departure from the usual framing of the organic-versus-conventional debate, which tends to ask which approach is universally better. The Nigerian team’s data suggest the more useful question is which approach is better for a specific product, market, and risk profile.

The study, conducted by researchers in the Department of Agricultural Education at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, the Department of Environmental Management and Toxicology at the University of Delta, Agbor, and the Department of Home Economics and Hospitality Management at the University of Nigeria, received no specific financial support and was published as open access research. The authors conclude that adopting targeted organic and integrated nutrient management practices could provide sustainable, goal-oriented pathways to optimize agricultural production while buffering domestic farming in the global South against global challenges in food production. For a crop as familiar and widely grown as the carrot, that is a quietly radical proposition: the future of sustainable vegetable farming may depend less on choosing sides in the fertilizer debate than on matching the nutrient strategy to the harvest a farmer actually intends to bring to market.

Subject of Research: Comparative effects of organic, inorganic, and integrated nutrient management on carrot growth and yield

Article Title: A comparative analysis of organic, inorganic manures, and integrated nutrient management in carrot growth and yield in the global south

Article References: Nwankwo, C. U., Ikehi, M. E., Ashikodi, M. O., Ugwu, E. I., Nosakhare, D. O., & Ifeanyieze, F. O. (2026). A comparative analysis of organic, inorganic manures, and integrated nutrient management in carrot growth and yield in the global south. Discover Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43621-026-04876-1

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s43621-026-04876-1

Keywords: carrot, Daucus carota, integrated nutrient management, poultry manure, NPK fertilizer, leafy biomass, root yield, sustainable agriculture, global South, soil fertility, livestock feed, fertilizer supply chain

The crop itself is remarkable. Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc.) is often described as a nutritionally complete food, packed with protein and starch, rich in minerals, low in fat, and unusually well balanced in essential amino acids such as lysine and methionine, which are limiting in many other legumes. It thrives across an extraordinary range of climates, from semi-arid zones to humid tropics, and it is a particularly important source of income for women across sub-Saharan Africa. Yet despite a theoretical yield potential of 3,000 to 4,000 kilograms per hectare, actual yields in Burkina Faso have stagnated at around 1,600 kilograms per hectare, a gap driven largely by declining soil fertility and the absence of varieties genuinely adapted to current climatic conditions.

The starting point of the trial was sobering. Laboratory analysis of the unfertilized control soil revealed alarming poverty in essential nutrients: organic matter of just 0.553 percent, total carbon of 0.321 percent, total nitrogen of 0.043 percent, available phosphorus of 5.83 parts per million, available potassium of 37.57 parts per million, a cation exchange capacity of 6.05 milliequivalents per 100 grams, and a slightly acidic pH of 5.4. Every one of these values fell below the critical thresholds considered necessary for optimal Bambara groundnut development, which include nitrogen of 0.1 to 0.2 percent, phosphorus of 15 to 25 parts per million, potassium of 80 to 120 parts per million, a cation exchange capacity above 10, and a pH between 5.5 and 6.5. In other words, the researchers were working with soil that should, on paper, barely support the crop at all.

Into this depleted ground the team introduced poultry droppings, an organic amendment prized for being inexpensive and rich in nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, which become rapidly available to plants without composting. The manure used in the trial was itself a chemical powerhouse, containing 88.436 percent total organic matter, 4.191 percent total nitrogen, 2.211 percent total phosphorus, 2.420 percent total potassium, along with substantial calcium and magnesium. The experimental design was a split-plot layout with three replicates: an unfertilized control, a moderate dose of 4,000 kilograms of manure per hectare, and a higher dose of 6,000 kilograms per hectare. Each main plot was subdivided into eight sowing rows, one for each genotype drawn from the gene bank of the Institute for the Environment and Agricultural Research, including six accessions and two registered varieties.

The results on soil chemistry were unambiguous. After the application of poultry manure and harvest, the fertilized soil showed notable increases in organic matter, carbon, available phosphorus, available potassium, and a slight rise in pH from 5.4 to around 5.7. Nitrogen increased only modestly, a shift the researchers attribute to substantial uptake by plants during the vegetative cycle. The correction of soil acidity likely improved the availability and uptake of nutrients across the board, while secondary elements such as calcium, magnesium, and sulfur contributed further to plant nutrition. The carbon-to-nitrogen ratio also rose in the fertilized soil, reflecting the enrichment of the growing medium with organic residues that can be transformed into humus, a genuine reservoir of water and nutrients on sandy Sahelian ground.

When it came to the plants themselves, the analysis of variance revealed a story of interlocking factors. Fertilization treatments had a highly significant influence on most traits studied, including grain yield, the number of pods per plant, the timing of 50 percent flowering and maturity, and the weight of 100 seeds. Genetic differences among the eight genotypes were significant to highly significant for nearly all traits, from flowering date to seed size and yield, confirming substantial variability that breeders can exploit. Crucially, significant genotype-by-fertilization interactions emerged for key traits such as days to 50 percent flowering, 100-seed weight, and grain yield, meaning that the effect of any given manure dose depended on which genotype was growing in it. For traits such as maturity date and seed dimensions, the two factors acted independently.

The performance rankings shifted with the environment, and this is where the practical implications become vivid. Under the unfertilized control, grain yield ranged from 784 kilograms per hectare for genotype E114 to 1,258 kilograms per hectare for KVS246, though the differences were not statistically significant. Under the moderate 4,000-kilogram dose, yields jumped dramatically, with genotype E62-a topping the trial at 2,951 kilograms per hectare, nearly tripling the best unfertilized performance, followed closely by KVS259. Under the higher 6,000-kilogram dose, the picture changed again: KVS115 led with 2,676 kilograms per hectare, and genotypes E17 and KVS259 also performed strongly. Individual genotype responses told the same story of specificity. Genotype E114, for example, produced only 784 kilograms per hectare unfertilized but 2,287 kilograms per hectare under the moderate dose, while KVS115 climbed from 1,112 to 2,676 kilograms per hectare between the control and the highest dose.

One genotype carried a particularly telling pedigree. KVS246, the most productive variety under unfertilized conditions, is one of the most widely grown local varieties in Burkina Faso precisely because of its resilience under variable rainfall. Farmers call it Komkoul-zaalem in the Mooré language, meaning that whatever the harshness of the environmental conditions, a minimal yield is guaranteed. The researchers note that this reputation is no coincidence: KVS246 is a population variety composed of several constituent genotypes, giving farmers a built-in portfolio of adaptations to different conditions. Its stability across fertilization regimes, alongside that of KVS115, suggests that such varieties offer a dependable baseline even where inputs are scarce, while targeted fertilization can unlock far higher ceilings for other genotypes.

The broader lesson the authors draw is that neither genetics nor soil management alone can close Bambara groundnut’s yield gap; the two must be matched. The expression of a genotype’s potential depends on environmental factors, including cultivation practices, and the distinct responses observed across the three fertilization environments point to a synergistic effect between variety and amendment that the researchers say warrants further investigation. Some genotypes may simply assimilate nutrients more efficiently or tolerate abiotic stress better, but the precise mechanisms remain speculative. What is clear is that evaluating genotypes across multiple fertilization environments is essential before making recommendations to farmers, because a variety that excels with manure may be mediocre without it, and vice versa.

The study also carries a caution. Because it was conducted at a single site during a single season, the findings are context-specific, and the authors call for multi-location, multi-season trials with larger plots to validate consistency across the Sudano-Sahelian zone. Still, in a region where cereals dominate production yet fail to guarantee food and nutritional security, and where decades of exclusive mineral fertilizer use have acidified soils, the case for agroecological intensification is compelling. Poultry droppings, cheap and locally abundant, could serve as an alternative to synthetic inputs, reviving a nutrient-dense legume whose underground pods demand little from fragile soils while giving much back. For smallholders facing climate change head-on, the message from Pamtaga is one of pragmatic hope: the seed and the manure, chosen together, can do far more than either can alone.

Subject of Research: Agronomic performance of Bambara groundnut genotypes under organic fertilization with poultry droppings in Burkina Faso

Article Title: Agronomic performance of Bambara groundnut genotypes [Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc] under organic fertilization in the Sudano-Sahelian zone of Burkina Faso

Article References: Ouoba, A., Bougma, A. L., Nikiema, D., Kambou, D. J., Ouedraogo, M. H., Sawadogo, N., & Ouedraogo, M. (2026). Agronomic performance of Bambara groundnut genotypes [Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc] under organic fertilization in the Sudano-Sahelian zone of Burkina Faso. Discover Agriculture, 4(1), Article 303. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44279-026-00674-5

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s44279-026-00674-5

Keywords: Bambara groundnut, Vigna subterranea, poultry manure, organic fertilization, Burkina Faso, Sudano-Sahelian zone, genotype-environment interaction, grain yield, soil fertility, plant breeding, sustainable agriculture, food security

The research, led by Adebayo Jonathan Adeyemo of the Federal University of Technology, Akure, together with collaborators from institutions in Nigeria, Brazil and Belgium, was designed to test whether locally sourced soil amendments could shift the fundamental chemistry of a tropical Alfisol quickly enough to matter for the growing season that follows. The stakes are considerable. Soil acidity and weak cation-holding capacity reduce nutrient-use efficiency in highly weathered tropical soils, undermining progress toward the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals on zero hunger, responsible consumption and terrestrial ecosystem health. When a soil cannot hold onto the nutrients it receives, every kilogram of fertilizer applied is a partial loss to leaching and fixation.

The experimental design was deliberately practical. The team laid out a 3 × 3 split-plot field trial with three replications, a structure that allows the independent and combined effects of two classes of amendment to be separated statistically. Main plots received one of three fertilizer designations: no mineral input, locally sourced potassium-bearing rock dust, or plots designated for later application of conventional NPK 15-15-15 fertilizer. Within each main plot, subplots received one of three organic treatments: no organic amendment, field-stabilized poultry manure, or fresh Tithonia diversifolia biomass, a plant widely known among West African farmers as a green manure because of its unusually high nutrient content. Baseline soil samples were taken before anything was applied, and okra was sown at the time of amendment incorporation.

Crucially, the researchers took their soil measurements at two weeks after amendment, before any NPK fertilizer had been applied to the plots designated for it. That sequencing decision matters for interpretation: the NPK-designated plots are reported as NPK-pre and cannot be read as evidence of NPK effects. This careful phrasing reflects a discipline that field trials often lack, and it protects the study’s central claims from being overstated. Everything reported in the paper describes the short-term chemical response of the soil to rock dust and organic materials alone.

The headline result concerns potassium, the nutrient whose shortage most clearly defines these soils. At two weeks after amendment, plots treated with potassium-bearing rock dust recorded an average exchangeable potassium concentration of 1.67 centimoles of charge per kilogram of soil, compared with just 0.49 in untreated control plots. That is more than a threefold increase in the pool of potassium held on soil exchange sites, the fraction most immediately available for root uptake. The operational cation-exchange capacity, a measure of the soil’s total ability to hold positively charged nutrients, rose to 8.54 cmolc per kilogram under rock dust, against 4.63 in the controls, nearly doubling the soil’s buffering and storage capacity.

The organic amendments produced their own distinctive signature, particularly on acidity. Poultry manure reduced the baseline-referenced hydrogen ion ratio from 1.07 under no organic amendment to 0.45, a substantial tempering of soil acidity, while lifting the operational cation-exchange capacity to 7.48 cmolc per kilogram. This dual action is chemically coherent: manure supplies basic cations and decomposable organic matter whose charged breakdown products add exchange sites, simultaneously neutralizing acid cations and increasing the soil’s capacity to retain the nutrients that replace them. Fresh Tithonia biomass, though valued as a green manure, behaved differently in combination with rock dust, a nuance that emerges most clearly in the interaction analysis.

Statistically, the most striking finding was the significant interaction between fertilizer designation and organic amendment for exchangeable potassium, with a P value of 0.027. Within rock-dust plots, poultry manure produced the highest exchangeable potassium of any combination, 1.90 cmolc per kilogram, exceeding both rock dust alone at 1.54 and rock dust combined with Tithonia at 1.57. In other words, the best result came not from any single input but from the synergy between mineral and organic sources. The authors suggest a plausible mechanism: the organic matter may enhance the dissolution of potassium-bearing minerals in the dust while adding its own organic-associated potassium pools, and its decomposing residues help the soil retain the released potassium against leaching.

Not every measured property responded to the combined treatments. The interactions were not statistically significant for operational cation-exchange capacity, which showed a P value of 0.145, or for effective cation-exchange capacity, at 0.085. Exchangeable acidity, by contrast, responded in an interactive fashion with high significance, at P below 0.001, indicating that the amendment combinations modified the acid cation fractions of the soil in ways that depended on which mineral and organic inputs were paired. Electrical conductivity, a proxy indicator for soluble salt accumulation, remained between 0.03 and 0.04 decisiemens per meter throughout, an extremely low range that rules out any short-term salinity build-up from the amendments, a concern sometimes raised with repeated manure application.

The authors are careful about what their findings do not establish. The study captures a fourteen-day chemical snapshot; it does not demonstrate long-term potassium retention, crop uptake of the released nutrients, or yield benefits, all of which would require seasons of monitoring. Dissolution of rock dust in tropical soils is generally a slow process, and whether the early gains in exchangeable potassium persist, deepen, or wash away depends on rainfall patterns, continued mineral weathering, and crop removal over time. The team frames its contribution accordingly: as evidence of short-term modification of acidity and exchangeable-cation status without evidence of salinity problems, a foundation on which longer-term agronomic studies can now build.

Even with those caveats, the implications for smallholder agriculture in the region are hard to ignore. Nigeria imports the bulk of its potash fertilizer at considerable foreign-exchange cost, while quarries and mining operations in the country generate potassium-bearing rock waste that is largely unused. If further research confirms that such rock dust, combined with manure that farmers already produce, can durably rebuild the cation-exchange machinery of degraded Alfisols, the result would be a circular soil-fertility strategy built entirely from local materials. For the moment, the study stands as a carefully documented proof of concept: in a weathered Nigerian Alfisol, ground potassium rock and poultry manure measurably and significantly enriched the soil’s potassium and cation-holding capacity within two weeks, pointing the way toward more self-reliant and sustainable soil management across the humid tropics.

Subject of Research: Short-term effects of potassium-bearing rock dust and organic amendments on soil acidity and cation retention in a tropical Alfisol

Article Title: Soil acidity, cation balance, exchangeable potassium status and cation retention capacity under K-bearing rock dust–organic amendment systems in a tropical Alfisol of southwestern Nigeria

Article References: Adeyemo, A. J., Akinnagbe, A. E., Adeoye, M. O., Adesida, P. A., Agele, S. O., Adejoro, S. A., Oluwagbemi, I. A., Ewulo, B. S., de Freitas, D. A. F., Shittu, O. S., Awodun, M. A., Oyun, M. B., & Oliveira, D. M. D. S. (2026). Soil acidity, cation balance, exchangeable potassium status and cation retention capacity under K-bearing rock dust–organic amendment systems in a tropical Alfisol of southwestern Nigeria. Discover Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43621-026-04688-3

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s43621-026-04688-3

Keywords: rock dust, poultry manure, Tithonia diversifolia, soil acidity, exchangeable potassium, cation-exchange capacity, tropical Alfisol, soil fertility, Nigeria, sustainable soil management, nutrient-use efficiency, Soil

The science behind the experiment is a well-orchestrated sequence of microbial chemistry. Anaerobic digestion relies on communities of bacteria and archaea that break down organic matter without oxygen, passing carbon through four successive stages: hydrolysis, acidogenesis, acetogenesis and finally methanogenesis. In this study, dried poultry manure was collected from two prominent farms in Lafia and from the depths of their manure disposal sources, then thoroughly stirred to create a homogeneous mixture. Because the raw manure contained about 20 percent solids, the researchers diluted it with water at a 1:2 ratio, producing an input slurry with 12 percent total volatile solids by weight. The digester was maintained at mesophilic conditions, the temperature window between roughly 20 and 45 degrees Celsius that laboratory studies have shown to be most favorable for the methane-producing microbes at the heart of the process.

The startup phase proved to be a study in microbial patience. For the first 29 days, no gas was produced at all. During this period, volatile fatty acid concentrations rose as hydrolysis, acidogenesis and acetogenesis dominated the reactor, driving the pH below 7 for the first 11 days of operation. Methanogenic archaea are famously sensitive to acidity, and the low pH initially suppressed them. Only after the pH began to recover and alkalinity stabilized, between August 2 and August 14, did conditions become hospitable for methanogenesis. Chemical analyses confirmed the process remained stable throughout: the ratio of volatile fatty acids to alkalinity stayed between 0.05 and 0.11, well below the threshold values of 0.1 to 0.7 reported in the literature, indicating no risk of acidification and a healthy balance between buffering capacity and acid production.

The feedstock itself carried encouraging chemistry. The poultry waste contained a high concentration of total volatile solids at 84.11 percent, reflecting its rich organic content, and the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio of the solid chicken manure measured 29.38, within the ideal range for biological treatment. The slurry’s C:N ratio of 27.11 and the sludge’s ratio of 11.74 further indicated that sufficient nutrients were available to sustain a steady digestion process and produce high-quality digestate fertilizer. Chemical oxygen demand values ranged from 2 to 70 grams per liter, and total Kjeldahl nitrogen from 0.1 to 0.5 grams per liter, figures consistent with those reported in comparable studies worldwide.

When biogas finally flowed, it came in modest but meaningful quantities. The digester produced an average of 0.3 liters per day, accumulating a total yield of 4.5 liters over the operating period. The highest daily output, 0.65 liters per gram of chemical oxygen demand, coincided with digester temperatures of 43 to 45 degrees Celsius. Conversely, when temperatures fell to 26 or 27 degrees Celsius, production dropped to just 0.1 liters. The relationship between heat and gas output was strikingly direct: even minor variations in temperature visibly shifted the rate of methane production, confirming that temperature is among the most powerful levers controlling anaerobic digestion performance.

It was here that the study delivered its most novel contribution. As August rainfall drove ambient temperatures down, the researchers connected a solar water heating system to the digester, circulating warm water through a U-shaped pipe inside the reactor to stabilize the temperature. The effect was dramatic. On sunny days, the solar-thermal system raised the average digester temperature by 35 percent and increased biogas production by 85 percent compared with rainy days. The mechanism is straightforward: stable, optimal temperatures boost enzymatic activity and metabolic rates across the microbial consortium, particularly the methanogens, accelerating the conversion of organic acids into methane and carbon dioxide. In a region with abundant sunshine but unreliable energy infrastructure, pairing digesters with solar heating could be a game-changing design principle.

The quality of the gas offered its own confirmation of success. On August 19, the researchers tested the biogas by attempting to burn it; it failed at first, but the following day it ignited with a clean blue flame, a classic indicator of high methane purity and efficient combustion. A blue flame in anaerobic digestion signals that the process has stabilized, with methane typically comprising between 55 and 65 percent of the gas and carbon dioxide between 30 and 45 percent, along with trace amounts of hydrogen sulfide and water vapor. Had carbon dioxide levels risen beyond about 50 percent, the flame would have shifted toward yellow, signaling a lower energy content.

Yet the study is equally candid about its limitations. The biogas productivity rate, ranging from zero to 0.002 liters per liter per day, was low, reflecting the small scale of the reactor, the short retention time of 54 days, the absence of co-substrates, and the lack of gas purification beyond a simple steel wool scrubber designed to strip hydrogen sulfide. The researchers recommend co-digesting poultry droppings with crop residues such as wheat straw, corn stalks and grain husks, and maintaining digester temperature throughout the run with solar thermal water heaters or boilers. These optimizations could substantially raise yields and move the technology closer to the economic thresholds at which farm-scale adoption becomes compelling.

The broader implications reach well beyond a single digester in Lafia. Globally, more than 2.24 billion tonnes of municipal solid waste were generated in 2020, and organic waste decomposing in landfills accounts for roughly 30 to 40 percent of methane emissions, a greenhouse gas with 25 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide over a century. Meanwhile, fossil fuels drive about 75.7 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, and energy price volatility, with Brent crude averaging around 81 dollars per barrel in 2024, exposes developing economies to punishing swings. Biogas programs have already scaled in India since the 1940s, China, and much of Europe, and researchers estimate that reactor-based biogas production could meet up to 30 percent of energy demand in industrialized and emerging cities. For Nigeria, which has committed to net-zero emissions by 2060 under its long-term climate vision, the study demonstrates that small-scale anaerobic digestion of poultry manure, especially when supported by solar-thermal temperature stabilization, is a viable strategy for waste management and bioenergy recovery. The authors argue that scaling such agricultural waste-to-energy models, supported by co-digestion strategies, improved collection systems, biogas incentives and public-private partnerships, could deliver the reliable and affordable green energy services needed to meet Sustainable Development Goal 7 by 2030, while simultaneously curbing pollution, improving soil health through nutrient-rich digestate, and opening new markets in sustainable agriculture and organic fertilizer manufacturing.

Subject of Research: Pilot-scale anaerobic digestion of poultry droppings for biogas production using continuous stirred tank reactor technology with solar-thermal temperature optimization in Nigerian agriculture

Article Title: Anaerobic digestion of poultry droppings for biogas production: a pilot study of renewable energy technology in the agricultural sector

Article References: Ayua, T. J., Ambrose, I. S., & Omaku, D. S. (2026). Anaerobic digestion of poultry droppings for biogas production: a pilot study of renewable energy technology in the agricultural sector. BMC Environmental Science, 3(1), Article 7. https://doi.org/10.1186/s44329-026-00048-8

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s44329-026-00048-8

Keywords: biogas, anaerobic digestion, poultry manure, renewable energy, continuous stirred tank reactor, solar heating, waste management, methane, Nigeria, circular economy, sustainable development, agricultural waste