Unveiling Environmental Influences on Sustainable FertilizerProduction through Insect Farming

Abstract

Entomocomposting is fast and environmentally friendly, boosts soil quality and cropproduction, and improves resilience to climate change. The black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) catalyzethe composting process, but their efficiency is highly influenced by environmental factors and thequality of the substrate. This study employs response surface methodology to discern physical–chemical factors that influence the nutrient quality of BSF frass fertilizer. Internet of Things (IoT)sensors were deployed to monitor in real-time both independent variables (air temperature, moisturecontent, humidity, and substrate temperature) and dependent variables (nitrogen, phosphorous, andpotassium); the data were relayed to the cloud. A non-linear regression model was used to study therelationship between the dependent and independent variables. Results showed that air humidityand air temperature did not have a significant effect on nitrogen and phosphorus accumulationin frass fertilizer, respectively, but phosphorus was significantly influenced by air humidity. Onthe other hand, neither air temperature nor moisture content has a significant effect on potassiumconcentration in frass fertilizer. We found that an air temperature of 30◦C and 41.5◦C, substratetemperature of 32.5◦C and 35◦C, moisture content between 70 and 80%, and relative humiditybeyond 38% can be conducive for the production of high-quality BSF frass fertilizer. Model validationresults showed better robustness of prediction withR2values of 63–77%, andR2adjvalues of 62–76%for nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium. Our findings highlight the potential for the application ofdigital tools as a fast and cost-effective decision support system to optimize insect farming for theproduction of high-quality frass fertilizer for use in sustainable agriculture and crop production