Nutrient Management Practices for Sustainable Vegetable and Fruit Production
A special issue of Agriculture (ISSN 2077-0472). This special issue belongs to the section "Crop Production".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 August 2026 | Viewed by 189
Special Issue Editors
Interests: plant physiology; plant nutrition; vegetable and fruit production; plant abiotic stress such as flooding/hypoxia; low-phosphorus; salinity
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: abiotic stress; crop growth modeling; ecophysiology; photosynthesis; plant-environment interactions; production systems
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Intensive vegetable and fruit production systems face the dual challenge of meeting rising global food demand while minimizing nutrient losses, environmental degradation, greenhouse gas emissions, and crop susceptibility to abiotic and biotic stresses. Historically, fertilization strategies have prioritized maximizing yield; however, growing evidence indicates that conventional approaches often overestimate plant nutrient availability, particularly in sandy or low-buffering soils, leading to inefficient nutrient use. Such inefficiencies not only increase production costs but also exacerbate nutrient leaching, surface runoff, and long-term soil quality deterioration. Recent advances in soil chemistry, rhizosphere biology, plant physiology, and precision agriculture now offer the foundation for nutrient management—a systems-based approach that integrates mechanistic understanding with practical tools to optimize nutrient use efficiency (NUE) and sustain productivity.
This Special Issue seeks to showcase innovative strategies that enhance nutrient efficiency and environmental sustainability in horticultural systems. Topics of interest include next-generation fertilizers (e.g., oxygen fertilizers, in situ hydrogel-coated fertilizers, and controlled-release formulations), elite genotype identification for improved NUE, rhizosphere-mediated nutrient mobilization, thermodynamic and mechanistic analyses of nutrient availability, and precision nutrient management technologies. We welcome original research articles, reviews, and methodological studies spanning molecular to field scales that provide actionable insights, improve economic and environmental outcomes, and support climate-resilient vegetable and fruit production systems.
Dr. Guodong Liu
Dr. Md Zohurul Kadir Roni
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- nutrient use efficiency
- sustainable horticulture
- advanced fertilizer technologies
- rhizosphere processes
- precision nutrient management
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