Abstract

Sustainable agriculture is aimed at long-term crop and livestock production with a minimal impact on the environment. However, agricultural practices from animal production can contribute to global pollution due to heavy metals from the feed additives that are used to ensure the nutritional requirements and also promote animal health and optimize production. The bioavailability of essential mineral sources is limited; thus, the metals are widely found in the manure. Via the manure, metallic ions can contaminate livestock wastewater, drastically reducing its potential recycling for irrigation. Phytoremediation, which is an efficient and cost-effective cleanup technique, could be implemented to reduce the wastewater pollution from livestock production, in order to maintain the water conservation. Plants use various strategies for the absorption and translocation of heavy metals, and they have been widely used to remediate livestock wastewater. In addition, the pollutants concentrated in the plants can be exhausted and used as heat to enhance plant growth and further concentrate the metals, making recycling a possible option. The biomass of the plants can also be used for biogas production in anaerobic fermentation. Combining phytoremediation and biorefinery processes would add value to both approaches and facilitate metal recovery. This review focuses on the concept of agro-ecology, specifically the excessive use of heavy metals in animal production, the various techniques and adaptations of the heavy-metal phytoremediation from livestock wastewater, and further applications of exhausted phytoremediated biomass.

Highlights

  • Sustainable agriculture, which is focused on long-term crop and livestock production with a minimal impact on the environment, is an immediate global priority in order to ensure a balance between food production and the preservation of the environment

  • Many goals related to sustainable agriculture and the modern principles of agro-ecology need to be effectively implemented in food production

  • This review has focused on animal production as a possible source of HMs in the water which have negative effects on human and animal health

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Summary

Sustainability in Animal Production

Sustainability is aimed at the best use of environmental services without any negative or harmful impact [1]. Many goals related to sustainable agriculture and the modern principles of agro-ecology need to be effectively implemented in food production. These include (i) water conservation, (ii) a reduction in the use of fertilizers and pesticides, and (iii) promotion of biodiversity throughout the entire agro-ecosystem, as well as (iv) the continued economic profitability of farms [2,3]. Nutrition, where animals are fed in line with the nutritional ecology strategy, and management are crucial in order to improve swine rearing, maintain animal well-being, meet the sustainable livestock production goals, and reduce water contamination, including heavy-metals (HMs) pollution from livestock-related activities [5]

The Importance of Heavy-Metals Use in Intensive Animal Production
Heavy Metals and Their Impact on the Environment
How Can Plants Remove Metals from Livestock Wastewater?
How Plants Function in the Phytoremediation of Heavy Metals
Diagram
Plant Reuse after Phytoremediation
Incineration
Biotechnological Process
Findings
Discussion and Conclusions

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