Unraveling the obstacles to transform agro-wastes into value-added bioproducts: Implications for sustainability

• The study evaluates the obstacles to transforming agro-waste into value-added bioproducts. • A novel Interval-Valued Type 2 Intuitionistic Fuzzy (IVT2IF) theory-based hybrid decision-making approach was utilized for analysis. • "Uncertainty about the return on investment (ROI) and the payback period" emerges as the most critical obstacle. • Findings can provide decision-makers with valuable insights to facilitate sustainable development in the agriculture-based industrial sectors. The global population and economy heavily rely on agriculture. Various agricultural processes generate copious amounts of waste. Effectively managing these agricultural wastes or agro-waste is necessary to mitigate environmental pollution, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and achieve carbon neutrality and sustainability. This has led to increased scientific interest in converting agro-waste into value-added bioproducts. However, the obstacles that hinder the adoption and implementation of this technology have still not been explored much. This study, therefore, employs a comprehensive novel integrated multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach, combining the Interval-Valued Type 2 Intuitionistic Fuzzy (IVT2IF) theory with the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method to evaluate the obstacles. This approach aims to identify, rank, and analyze the interrelationships among the obstacles hindering agro-waste conversion into value-added bioproducts. Through literature review and expert validation, 17 obstacles were identified to be analyzed using the IVT2IF-DEMATEL method. The study’s findings suggest that "uncertainty about the return on investment (ROI) is the most influential obstacle, with a prominence value of 12.17, likely owing to its direct influence on investment decisions and the economic viability of agro-waste projects, followed by "lack of regulatory and legislative assistance" (12.02) and "necessity of a high initial investment" (11.77). The study also suggests that the most significant causal obstacle is the "lack of regulatory and legislative assistance” (with a causal weight of 0.83), which is trailed by "lack of green entrepreneurship support" and "lack of professional training and relevant technical expertise" (which have causal weights of 0.78 and 0.72, respectively). The study’s findings have the potential to provide policymakers and decision-makers valuable insights for shaping investment decisions and developing effective long-term plans to facilitate and incentivize green agro-businesses that utilize agro-wastes and thus promote carbon neutrality and sustainable development in the agriculture-based industrial sectors.