Assessing the potential of agricultural food market wastes as a source of nutrient recovery; a case study Kalerwe market

Abstract

Over the last few decades, increases in population with concomitant rapid economic development has generated a large amount of solid waste from domestic, industrial and agricultural activities. Among them, wastage of food is becoming a global concern, generating large quantities each year, with a variable recycling rate from country to country. The increasing generation of food waste and its management constitute a major concern. However, these wastes contain valuable plant nutrients that could be recovered to boost soil fertility, and increase agricultural production. This study uses a quantitative research approach to assess the potential of Agricultural food market wastes as a source of nutrient recovery and data was collected from Kalerwe market located in Kawempe division in Kampala city which lies in Central Uganda. The city is bordered by Wakiso district to the South, the West and the North and by Kiira Municipality to the East. The research assessed the types and quantities of agricultural food wastes, characterized the wastes in terms of N, P, K levels. The results showed that 35% of the waste generated was of vegetables, 624kg of waste was generated at the main damping site. The results also showed that the wastes contained some appreciable amounts of N ranging from 0.4 to 4.8%, P ranging from 1.0 to 3.5% and K ranging from 0.7 to 5.0%. The results and findings of this study affirmed that agricultural food wastes in Kalerwe market was a potential source of nutrient recovery, this was empirically analyzed from the samples that were taken and found with concentration of Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium. The study recommends that agricultural food wastes should be processed to produce manure that can be used for plant nutrients instead of being dumped and wasted.