Food waste is a vast issue global, including in Malaysia. Food waste brings negative impacts, including increasing food production costs, impact on human health, and environmental degradation. Malaysian’s animal- and plant-based diet preferences affected the desired food waste decomposition method as most of the methods only allow plant-based material to be utilized as food waste compost. The objectives of this study were to understand Malaysians' awareness of food waste behaviour and the food waste component for the decomposition. Malaysians usually produce more plant-based food waste than animal-based food waste. Most Malaysians have a high awareness of causes and impact of food waste, but they lack action on food waste reduction. Bio-compost is believed to be the most effective method to manage food waste, and most of them were willing to have it at home. However, some of them are unwilling to have a compost pile at home because there is no time to take care of it.

Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) is a heat tolerant vegetable crop with high economic and nutritional importance in parts of Asia, Africa, and America. The okra biodiversity held in gene bank collections could be mined for traits for breeding more stress tolerant and nutritional cultivars. An okra core collection of 166 accessions comprising A. esculentus, A. moschatus, A. caillei, and A. manihot has been assembled from the World Vegetable Center germplasm collection (840 accessions) based on diversity analysis with 20 microsatellite markers. A selection of A. esculentus accessions of the core collection (75 accessions) and 20 breeder-selected genotypes have been screened for variation of their response to flooding stress under field conditions using a high throughput phenotyping system. Growth increment per day and changes of physiological indices were measured before, during, and after application of 9 days of flooding stress. Several accessions showed only a small reduction in daily growth increment during flooding. Across the germplasm panel, maintained growth was correlated with maintained normalized differential vegetation index and was negatively correlated with plant senescence index. Accessions with maintained growth and health under flooding were selected for future further analysis and use in breeding.

| Bokashi is an organic fertilizer fermented with organic waste, beneficial microbes, and sugar. Bokashi improved soil’s physical, chemical, and biological properties and eventually enhanced plant growth and yield production. Bokashi enhances the plant’s initial and later growth performance, including seed germination, seedling survival rate, fruit diameter, fruit size, fresh and dry matter, chlorophyll content, leaves the area, leaves number, plant nutrient, sugar, total soluble solid, organic acid, and ascorbic acid. No doubt, plant growth performance is closed related to soil properties. Bokashi is proper organic waste management and is easy to be implemented by household size. Bokashi can turn waste into the next food nutrient and ensure food security.

Food waste is a serious global issue, and one way to reduce the impact of food waste is by composting. Sandwich compost is a type of fermented food waste compost created with microbial fermentation; meanwhile, the composting leachate provides nutrients for plants. Studies have shown that seed germination may be enhanced when treated with sandwich compost leachate. Furthermore, few studies have been on sandwich compost leachate used for seed priming. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of varying leachate concentrations of food waste sandwich compost and priming durations on the performance of Chinese chive (Allium tuberosum) seed germination. Chinese chive (Allium tuberosum) was chosen as the test crop. It is widely used as a flavouring herb with high economic potential; however, its seed germination time is long and requires pre-treatment such as crushing and seed priming to speed up the germination process. The study used four replications and a complete randomisation design (CRD). The seeds were exposed to different percentages of sandwich compost leachate (0.0%, 0.2%, 0.4%, 0.6%, 0.8%, and 1.0%) and priming duration (4, 8, and 12 hours). A significant interaction between the bio-nutri-priming concentration and priming duration was demonstrated by measuring the standard error of germination rate (S-(V) over bar) and corrected germination rate index (S-corrected). A longer bio-nutri-priming duration was key for a higher seed vigour index. The bio-nutripriming concentration and priming duration, however, had no significant interaction. Longer bio-nutri-priming durations were recommended to obtain better germination performance of Chinese chive. The study showed that a twelve-hour bio-nutri-priming duration and a 0.6 % leachate concentration significantly enhanced the Chinese chive seed germination and helped break seed dormancy.

Enzymatic Activities of Bok Choy (Brassica rapa subsp. Chinensis) Grown Soil with the Amendment of Sandwich Compost: Soil enzymes ensure our food security, yet they are vulnerable to abiotic stresses. Solving the global issues of food waste by amending the Sandwich compost can be a great solution to ensure food security. Food waste Sandwich compost substrate (as soil amendment) and leachate (as seed priming solution and liquid fertilizer) were used to grow Bok Choy for 4 growing cycles, where soil pH, cation exchangeable capacity, moisture content, aggregate stability, and enzyme activity were determined. The Sandwich compost substrate amendment increased soil pH close to neutral and CEC up to 1.5-fold. Anaerobic Sandwich compost substrate-amended soil reduced soil catalase activity. Still, it steadily increased during the growing cycle. The Sandwich compost substrate amendment soil sustained the aggregate stability for 4 growing cycles. On the flip side, aggregate stability without the Sandwich compost substrate amended soil declined from the growing cycle to the next growing cycle. All variables were positively correlated except catalase activity. Henceforward, Sandwich compost substrate is recommended to improve soil quality in the aspects of pH, CEC urease activity, and dehydrogenase activity.

Basella rubra L. is a type of spinach, which is edible with high nutrient composition. It is also known to be an antioxidant. However, initial germination and root growth remain an issue due to hard exterior seed coating. Thus, some may germinate within 10 to 21 days, and some may not work at all. Inhibited growth may lead to vegetative propagation and micropropagation, which fundamentally reduce the growth and yield. Basella seed treated with Bokashi leachate was found to improve seed germination and root growth. A study was conducted using food waste EM Bokashi leachate (0:1, 1:1500, 1:1000, 1:500) with biopriming duration (6 and 12 hours). The experiment was conducted in a completely random design (CRD) with 3 replications of 100 seeds, with 24 experimental units. Based on the results, a short biopriming duration (6 hours) significantly enhanced the mean germination rate, germination speed accumulated, and coefficient of germination velocity. However, germination percentage had no significant improvement by leachate. Long priming duration significantly reduced the root development due to the seed may loss of desiccation tolerance. The concentration of leachate and priming duration had no significant interaction. In order to improve the germination and root growth performance, 6 hours of seeds priming duration or 1:500 (0.2%) of food waste Bokashi leachate was recommended to soak the Basella rubra seeds.