Almond Waste to Compost | 10 November 2023 | Good Fruit & Vegetables - video Dailymotion

Farm Online

Select Harvests is working with SARDI to turn almond waste into beneficial compost.

Transcript

00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:03 Everything starts from here.

00:24 This is almond fruit.

00:26 70% of that one is unedible portion, which

00:30 is called almond hull and shell.

00:32 And that's only 30% is edible part.

00:34 So the rest we have to manage, which is generally

00:38 about 100,000 to 120,000 tons, depending on the year.

00:41 I am Guna Pulgunawadana.

00:47 I'm the senior technical officer of Select Harvest Limited.

00:50 Select Harvest is the largest integrated almond company

00:55 in the world.

00:56 Select Harvest has a goal of becoming net zero or carbon

01:01 neutral in 2050.

01:04 So we've got to start working on various ways

01:07 to offset our carbon emission.

01:09 I think ongoing research in this area

01:14 is very important for Australian agriculture

01:16 as we approach 2050 and net zero.

01:19 We're here at the ACE Research Orchard in Loxton.

01:22 And I manage an almond soil amendment trial.

01:26 In this trial, we're getting information

01:27 on the benefits of organic amendment

01:29 to give almond growers the confidence

01:31 to use recycled almond waste on their properties.

01:33 Select Harvest has looked into what

01:40 are the cost effective ways of using this almond waste.

01:44 One of the method is compost production.

01:48 So this is shredded almond hull.

01:50 And this is actually the main organic component

01:53 we're using in the compost.

01:55 This shredded almond hull, which has

01:57 quite a significant level of potassium

02:00 and various other nutrients as well,

02:03 currently we are substituting 30% of chemical fertilizers

02:09 with the nutrients coming from this compost.

02:12 And this compost is 100% comprising

02:16 plant horticultural waste.

02:18 So more than 50% is almond waste.

02:22 And the rest is coming from olive waste, lime, gypsum,

02:26 rock phosphate.

02:28 All these things are adding into the compost blend

02:32 and making a very high nutrient rich compost.

02:37 The challenges that this trial is addressing

02:40 is looking at the nutrient efficiency of applied compost

02:44 and the possibility if nutrient production efficiency can

02:47 be improved by some of the nutrients coming

02:49 from the compost, that may lessen

02:51 the requirement for external synthetic fertilizers.

02:53 A key takeaway from a trial like this

02:58 would be that while we're yet to see significant yield

03:02 responses to organic amendment, we've

03:04 found improvements in soil parameters.

03:06 We're seeing increased soil fertility, carbon levels,

03:10 cation exchange capacity, the ability to hold nutrients,

03:12 and so on, and increases in biological activity as well.

03:16 So these systemic improvements in the soils

03:20 have the potential to increase production efficiency

03:22 and perhaps minimize the requirement

03:25 for external fertilizer sources.

03:27 This compost, it has a number of carbon benefits.

03:30 One thing is this compost applies subsoil.

03:34 That means it is away from the normal atmosphere.

03:37 So in other words, that application method

03:39 is actually reducing any subsequent carbon dioxide

03:42 emission.

03:43 This is some of the work that even

03:45 we did with Sadi.

03:47 We found that it actually enhanced subsoil root

03:51 development.

03:52 So all these things are increasing, enhancing

03:56 carbon sequestration in the soil.

04:00 So this is the final compost material

04:03 with a high nutrient level and totally contaminant free.

04:10 [MUSIC PLAYING]

04:14 [MUSIC PLAYING]

04:17 [MUSIC PLAYING]

04:21 (classical music)

04:23 [music]

Almond Waste to Compost | 10 November 2023 | Good Fruit & Vegetables

Category

Transcript

Recommended