The interest in re-implementing agroforestry (AF) in European agriculture due to its environmental benefits has been growing exponentially. We reviewed the historical background and the current state (extent, farmers’ perception, legislative support, and barriers) to evaluate the future perspectives of AF in Czechia by identifying the key factors hampering further extension. Our results confirmed that AF almost disappeared after the middle of the 19th century due to agricultural intensification and collectivization. Currently, AF is not defined in the Czech legislation and no modern AF has been encountered by this study. Areas falling into AF definition recently comprise only traditional AF (less than 1% of agricultural area remaining) represented only by silvopastoral AF. The results of a farmers’ survey indicated that despite relatively high interest in AF, excessive bureaucratization, high costs of establishment and uncertain profitability are severe concerns among farmers. We therefore conclude that there is a lack of legal recognition and marginalization of AF as the key obstacles of low adoption rates. We suggest that systematic support beyond subsidies should include raising awareness, research, policy, legislation changes, training, and advisory service, as a cornerstone for progressive development of AF and thus conservation and creation of economically and environmentally sound landscapes throughout Czechia.

In recent years, microalgal biomass cultivation has been growing in importance, not only related to the production of alternative foods and nutritional supplements but also for its usage for energy purposes or as a natural solution for wastewater treatment. Regarding these cases, the practical potential associated with the circular economy is evident. However, this is not an option for microalgal food and supplements due to strict hygiene requirements for microalgae cultivation used for these purposes. Currently, the most common cultivation options for microalgae include phototrophic cascades, photobioreactors, and heterotrophic fermenters. Generally, the higher requirements for the purity of the resulting biomass, the higher the consumption of energy and nutrients needed. These are the main operational parameters that significantly shape the total environmental and economic performance of microalgae cultivation processes. The comparative Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of environmental aspects in the operational phases of three selected cultivation systems, located in the Czech Republic and used for pure microalgae biomass production, confirmed that the impacts of these systems in the assessed categories are fundamentally dependent on the amount of electricity needed and nutrient consumption, as well as their sources. For this reason, the heterotrophic fermenter was evaluated as being the most damaging in the comparison of the three cultivation systems, while the phototrophic cascade showed a lower total environmental impact by 15% and the flat photobioreactor was lower still, by 95%, mainly due to energy production from biomass. The major impact categories observed were climate change, depletion of fossil fuels, human toxicity, and freshwater and marine ecotoxicity. The environmental impacts of microalgae cultivation systems could be further reduced if cycling practices, such as process water recycling and reprocessing of generated sewage sludge, were addressed.

Our article analyzes the main biological potentials and economic barriers of using Miscanthus as a new energy crop in agricultural practice in the Czech Republic and the Central-Eastern European region. We have used primary data from long-term field experiments and commercial plantations to create production and economic models that also include an analysis of competitive ability with conventional crops. Our results showed that current economic conditions favor annual crops over Miscanthus (for energy biomass) and that this new crop shows very good adaptation to the effects of climate change. Selected clones of Miscanthus × giganteus reached high biomass yields between 15–17 t DM ha⁻¹ y⁻¹ despite very dry and warm periods and low-input agrotechnology, and they have good potential to become important biomass crops for future bioenergy and the bioeconomy. Key barriers and factors are identified, including gene pool and agronomy improvement, change of subsidy policy (Common agriculture policy-CAP), climate change trends, and further development of the bioeconomy.

In recent years, an increase in the chicken meat process industry has been growing quickly, which brings a large amount of difficult to process waste, chicken feathers. These billions of kilograms create a serious waste problem over the world, furthermore, poultry feather processing is not only particularly difficult but also relatively expensive. In fact, there is no technology suitable for processing such huge quantities of feathers to guarantee sustainable development of the chicken meat industry together with processing of waste feathers. This article introduces a newly designed and original, highly efficient and environmentally friendly method of physicochemical hydrolysis of waste feathers. The hydrolysis is carried out in the presence of a weak organic carboxylic acid; thus, the resulting hydrolysate does not contain any salts or ashes. Therefore, a resulting hydrolysate, which includes a mixture of amino acids, peptides, proteins, glycoproteins and free fatty acids, is suitable for a variety of applications; e.g. as a chondroprotective agent in the treatment of joint diseases, nutrients for crop plants or targeted biostimulants for agriculture. This paper is focused not only on the process scale-up but also on environmental aspects and economic evaluations to bring general view of the process. Graphic

The poultry meat industry generates about 60 million tons of waste annually. However, such waste can serve as a cheap material source for sustainable liquid fertilizers or biostimulant production. Moreover, its practical potential associated with the circular economy is evident. One of the options for waste feather reprocessing is to use a hydrolysis process, whose operating parameters vary depending on the waste material used. The better the quality of the waste feathers, the less energy is needed; moreover, a higher yield of amino acids and peptides can be achieved. These are the main operational parameters that influence the overall environmental and economic performance of the hydrolysis process. The assessment of process operational environmental aspects confirmed that the environmental impacts of hydrolysate production are highly dependent on the amount of electricity required and its sources. This fact influences the midpoint and the endpoint impacts on the observed environmental impact categories. It also minimizes the pressure associated with fossil resource scarcity and the related impact on climate change. During an economic evaluation of the process, it was found that the option of processing more fine waste, such as CGF, provided a 5% saving in energy costs related to the reduction in the cost per liter of hydrolysate of 4.5%. Finally, a case study experiment confirmed the fertilizing effect of the hydrolysate on pepper plants (biometric parameters, yield). Thus, the hydrolysate produced from the waste feathers can serve as a substitute for nitrate fertilizing, which is commonly drawn from raw fossil materials.