The Responses of Food Crops to Fertilization and Conservation Tillage—2nd Edition

Dear Colleagues,

Meeting the dual demands of increasing agricultural productivity and strengthening crop resilience represents a fundamental challenge in modern farming systems, particularly in the context of global population growth and climate variability. Strategic crop management approaches—especially precision fertilization, crop growth regulation, and adaptive tillage methods—serve as critical tools that can be utilized to overcome this challenge. These techniques work synergistically to improve yields by addressing nutrient deficiencies and enhancing soil properties, while simultaneously fortifying plants against environmental stresses through improved antioxidant responses and robust root development.

Conventional farming practices have often relied on excessive fertilizer inputs and intensive soil disturbance, leading to significant sustainability issues, including resource inefficiency, increased carbon emissions, and deteriorations in soil health. Transitioning to innovative, precision-based management systems is, therefore, essential to balancing agricultural output with ecological preservation. Advanced approaches that focus on resource optimization—such as site-specific nutrient application, crop growth regulation, and conservation tillage—enable sustained yield improvements and stress tolerance while maintaining the environmental equilibrium. These methodologies have proven to be equally valuable in both conventional monoculture systems and diversified agroforestry systems, where the strategic integration of trees and crops creates mutually beneficial relationships that enhance production stability, stress mitigation, and resource utilization efficiency.

This Special Issue invites submissions of high-quality review and research articles that focus on optimized crop management strategies, including fertilizer application, plant growth regulators, and tillage practices, along with innovative approaches and resource conservation technologies. We seek studies that demonstrate the successful enhancement of system productivity in food crop-based systems alongside the simultaneous minimization of environmental impacts.

We also encourage submissions that provide novel insights into integrated crop management solutions, including, but not limited to, the following topics:

• Sustainable yield enhancement strategies;
• Stress resilience improvement approaches;
• Plant growth regulation mechanisms;
• Resource utilization optimization;
• Ecological impact assessments.

Dr. Zhaowen Mo
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agriculture is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• food crops
• grain yield and quality
• stress resistance, crop physiology and ecology
• greenhouse gas emissions
• fertilization and tillage management
• plant growth regulation
• ecological effects

• The Responses of Food Crops to Fertilization and Conservation Tillage in Agriculture (7 articles)