Search Results (12,407)

Almond (Prunus dulcis (Mill.) D.A. Webb) is one of the most economically important nut crops worldwide, valued for its nutritional properties and adaptability to diverse agroecological environments. This review summarizes current knowledge on almond domestication, genetic diversity, production trends, and improvement strategies, with a focus on drought tolerance under climate change. Archaeobotanical and molecular evidence indicate central Asia and the eastern Mediterranean as key centers of origin, where recurrent introgression from wild Prunus species contributed to the high genetic variability of cultivated almond. Global production trends reveal increasing challenges due to prolonged drought, climate variability, and rising water and energy costs, particularly affecting major producers such as the United States. Mediterranean regions are transitioning from traditional low-density orchards to intensive systems, where cultivar and rootstock choice are crucial for sustainability. Self-fertile and late-blooming cultivars improve yield stability, while interspecific hybrid rootstocks enhance water use efficiency and tolerance to drought and poor soils. Drought stress impacts almond physiology and yield, although moderate deficit irrigation can maintain productivity and improve kernel quality. Future improvement relies on germplasm conservation, marker-assisted selection, and genomic tools to develop climate-resilient cultivars integrated with sustainable water management strategies. Full article

Hydroponic cultivation is expanding rapidly as a resource-efficient alternative to soil-based farming, but challenges related to nutrient management, abiotic or biotic stresses, and organic production still limit the system’s performance and efficiency. Biostimulants are increasingly being explored as a promising strategy to support productivity and sustainability in soilless systems. This review summarizes the current evidence on the use of plant biostimulants to support crop performance in hydroponic systems. Microbial biostimulants, such as plant growth promoting rhizobacteria, Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi, and Trichoderma spp., have been reported to promote root growth by synthesizing phytohormones, enhance nutrient uptake, and reduce the impacts of salt and heat stress, with reported improvements in biomass and nutrient use efficiency. Seaweed extracts and protein hydrolysates modulate plant hormonal balance, improve antioxidant defense, and have been associated with improvements in yield and quality. Humic and fulvic acids increase micronutrient bioavailability through chelation and stimulate root activity through auxin-like effects. In organic hydroponics, biostimulants may help address the nutrient gap by accelerating organic matter mineralization. Existing key challenges include the lack of hydroponic-specific dosage guidelines and high commercialization costs. Future efforts should further evaluate system-specific strategies, including emerging tools such as artificial intelligence-optimized strategies and the use of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats-edited microbes to support the long-term sustainability of controlled environment agriculture. Full article

Phosphorus deficiency in the environment induces phosphate (Pi) starvation responses of plants, in which the phosphate transporter is one of the most critical functional genes in this response mechanism. As a prevalent green manure crop in China, Vicia villosa plays a critical role in sustainable agricultural systems, and the expression of its phosphate transporter gene (VvPHT1) is modulated by soil phosphorus availability, highlighting its key adaptive function in nutrient acquisition and utilization under low-Pi conditions. Functional studies of this gene and its promoter contribute to exploring the molecular mechanisms of the tolerance of green manure crops to low phosphorus stress and to improving phosphorus-efficient V. villosa varieties. In this study, analysis of the VvPHT1 promoter sequence revealed a 1524 bp region containing multiple root-specific cis-regulatory elements, including five NODCON2GM, one NODCON1GM, six OSE2ROOTNODULE, one OSE1ROOTNODULE, and fifteen ROOTMOTIFTAPOX1 motifs. Histochemical GUS staining of transgenic Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh.) showed that the VvPHT1 promoter directed root-specific expression of the GUS reporter gene. A fusion expression vector pCAMBIA1300-VvPHT1--GFP was constructed and transformed into tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) cells for subcellular localization analysis, indicating that the protein encoded by VvPHT1 was localized to the plasma membrane. To quantify its expression, VvPHT1 transcript levels in VvPHT1-overexpressing Arabidopsis (OEPHT1) lines were analyzed by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) under different phosphorus supply conditions. The results demonstrated that under low-Pi conditions, the expression of VvPHT1 was significantly upregulated in the OEPHT1 lines compared to those of normal-Pi conditions. Furthermore, under low-Pi treatment, the OEPHT1 lines showed significantly increased fresh weight, primary root length, phosphorus content, and chlorophyll content compared to the wild-type Arabidopsis (WT), while no such differences were observed under normal-Pi conditions. In conclusion, the VvPHT1 promoter exhibits root-specific activity, and the VvPHT1 gene encodes a plasma-membrane-localized phosphate transporter that is strongly induced by phosphorus deficiency. Its overexpression enhances phosphorus uptake and plant growth under low-Pi conditions, suggesting that VvPHT1 likely functions as a high-affinity phosphate transporter involved in the adaptation to phosphorus starvation. Full article

Aphanomyces root rot is a major threat to legume production worldwide, mainly in pea and lentil, crops on which extensive research programs are targeting the management of the disease. However, other legumes such as common vetch, although known to be severely affected by the disease, remain largely unexplored. This study aimed to identify sources of resistance within V. sativa subsp. sativa accessions. A total of 211 genetically diverse accessions were screened under controlled conditions following inoculation with isolate RB84. Disease progression was monitored through periodic foliar assessments and final root symptom evaluation. To assess resistance stability, a subset of 13 accessions representing contrasting response levels was further inoculated with three additional isolates (Aph-1, AE11, and AE12). In this multi-isolate assay, disease severity was quantified, shoot biomass was recorded, and root system architecture traits were determined using WinRHIZO image analysis. A high correlation between foliar and root symptoms at 20 days indicated that foliar symptom assessment provides a reliable, non-destructive indicator of root health. Considerable variation in disease response was detected, with several genotypes maintaining consistently low symptom levels and three exhibiting near-complete resistance across all isolates. Root architectural traits further corroborated visual disease assessments, showing patterns consistent with resistance and susceptibility responses. Overall, this study demonstrates the presence of genetic variability in the response of V. sativa to A. euteiches, with a subset of accessions showing resistance to the four isolates tested. This resistance potential can be directly used in breeding programs focused on improving tolerance to root rot. Full article

Botanical extracts have emerged as promising biostimulants in agricultural systems because of their ability to modulate key metabolic and redox processes in crops, thereby increasing stress tolerance and productivity. This review synthesizes current knowledge on how botanical extracts influence plant metabolism and redox homeostasis, with a particular emphasis on their role in adaptive cellular responses. Evidence indicates that these extracts can increase antioxidant enzyme activity, regulate reactive oxygen species (ROS) signaling, and promote the accumulation of bioactive metabolites associated with improved stress tolerance and enhanced growth. This review also examines how agronomic practices, including nutritional management, water availability, light regimes, and preharvest biostimulant applications, together with emerging biotechnological approaches, can be strategically employed to optimize the bioactive composition and efficacy of botanical extracts. By integrating recent advances in metabolomics and transcriptomics, the manuscript highlights the biochemical and molecular reprogramming triggered by botanical extracts. It identifies key challenges, including variability in extract composition, lack of standardization, and context-dependent responses. Finally, future research directions are outlined, emphasizing the need for mechanistic understanding, quantitative evaluation of plant responses, and the development of standardized frameworks to support the sustainable application of botanical extracts in agriculture. Full article

Durum wheat production in the Mediterranean basin faces increasing climate variability and thus the need for computationally efficient tools to support agronomic decision-making at regional scale. Process-based crop models such as AquaCrop provide mechanistically sound yield estimates but require substantial computation time when screening large numbers of soil–climate–management combinations. The present study addresses this constraint by developing and evaluating five machine learning (ML) surrogate models—Linear Regression (LR), Multilayer Perceptron (MLP), Support Vector Machine for regression (SMOreg), RandomTree, and Reduced Error Pruning Tree (REPTree)—trained to emulate the AquaCrop-GIS response surface for durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.) grain yield across the Capitanata plain (Southern Italy). A dataset of 342 instances was constructed by crossing 25 soil profiles, three sowing dates, and two irrigation regimes across 15 climatic grid cells (2014–2023), evaluated by stratified 10-fold cross-validation. The MLP achieved the highest accuracy (R = 0.983; R² = 0.966; RMSE = 0.083 t ha⁻¹); the four interpretable models were clustered at R = 0.891–0.907 (RMSE = 0.192–0.203 t ha⁻¹). All models converged on consistent agronomic signals: standard sowing (1 November) yielded +0.53 t ha⁻¹ over late sowing (15 November), supplemental irrigation added +0.17 t ha⁻¹, and fine-textured soils produced superior yields. The convergence of directional signals across linear, kernel-based, and tree-based architectures confirms that ML surrogates trained on process-model outputs can efficiently emulate AquaCrop response surfaces and deliver actionable management guidance for durum wheat producers and agricultural planners in Mediterranean dryland farming systems. Full article

Economic comparison of different production models, focusing on production costs and economic viability–profitability are essential to guide decision-making and enhance the competitiveness and resilience of the agri-food chain. This is the overall objective of the paper: to establish the production and cost structure and to economically evaluate two greenhouse pepper production models. Data on the production process of the production models (organic and conventional greenhouse pepper) and their cost and income structures were collected through 15 on-site surveys conducted with growers and horticultural sector technicians. The initial investment is very high (140,030 €·ha⁻¹) and requires a significant financial effort for implementation, being the same for both conventional and organic cultivation, this means that fixed costs are high in percentage terms, especially when compared to other intensive outdoor horticultural crops. The key cost differences between the two systems are found in fertilisers, plant protection treatments, and biotechnological control and cost structure indicates a higher unit cost for organically produced peppers, 0.60 €·kg⁻¹ for conventional and 0.75 €·kg⁻¹ for organic production. Greenhouse pepper cultivation in southeastern Spain is an economically viable and profitable activity under both conventional and organic management. Profitability indicators consistently show that the conventional system is more profitable at the same farm scale or size. Full article

Ratoon rice is a unique cropping system that utilizes the regenerative capacity of rice tillers to achieve one sowing with two harvests in a single growing season, thus exhibiting great yield potential. However, the ratooning ability is often constrained by impaired root function after the first harvest. In this study, we established an integrated nutrient management (INM) strategy to enhance root growth and function, thereby improving nutrient use efficiency and yield. Compared with farmers’ conventional management (FCM), INM increased annual total yield by 7.8% and 13.9% and enhanced ratooning ability by 20.7% and 19.0% in 2024 and 2025, respectively. INM consistently maintained higher root biomass in both main and ratoon crops: by 26.9% and 54.0% in 2024, and by 44.8% and 26.0% in 2025. Root biomass was significantly and positively correlated with brown rice weight across both seasons, and was positively associated with ratooning ability. INM also promoted early root establishment after transplanting, increasing the white-root number by 105.7%, 175.0%, and 484.8% at 3, 5, and 14 days after transplanting (DAT), respectively. Meanwhile, the xylem sap exudation rate and root triphenyl tetrazolium chloride (TTC) reduction activity were increased by 37.4% and 64.5% relative to FCM. In the 2024 ratoon season, INM improved nutrient use efficiency, with partial factor productivity (PFP) of nitrogen (PFP_N), phosphorus (PFP_P), and potassium (PFP_K) increased by 371.0%, 59.3%, and 91.1%, respectively. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) revealed significant enrichment of gene sets involved in root growth, development, nutrient acquisition, and assimilation under INM, providing molecular evidence for root-mediated nutrient synergy. In summary, INM enhances root growth and function, promotes nutrient uptake and utilization, and consequently improves yield. These results offer a practical management strategy supported by physiological and transcriptomic evidence for boosting ratoon rice production via root-mediated nutrient synergies. Full article

The rice–wheat rotation is a predominant cropping pattern in China, frequently challenged by pests such as aphids in wheat, and Chilo suppressalis and Cnaphalocrocis medinalis in rice. This study investigates the potential of two common landscape plants, Photinia × fraseri and Pittosporum tobira, as functional plants for conserving natural enemies across crop cycles. Arthropod communities were systematically monitored using Malaise traps during the wheat, wheat–rice transition, and rice seasons from 2023 to 2024. Results revealed that both species successfully conserved a diverse natural enemy community, though their structural differentiation was strongly driven by seasonal variation, as confirmed by Heatmap and principal component analysis (PCA) (P. × fraseri: PC1 = 46.3%, PC2 = 23%; P. tobira: PC1 = 40.2%, PC2 = 25%). During the wheat season, both plants synergistically supported rich functional guilds, including predatory guilds (e.g., Episyrphus balteatus, Gnathonarium dentatum, and Harmonia axyridis) and parasitic guilds (e.g., Microplitis tuberculifer and Cotesia spp.). Notably, during the critical wheat-to-rice transition, these shrubs functioned as “habitat anchors,” where P. × fraseri demonstrated superior retention capacity for functional groups like Aphidius gifuensis, mitigating post-harvest habitat fragmentation. During the rice season, distinct functional complementarity emerged: P. × fraseri appeared to function as a habitat-type plant, potentially providing stable shelter for predatory groups (e.g., spiders and lady beetles), while P. tobira appeared to act as a resource-type plant, potentially attracting a significant rebound of parasitoids (e.g., Xanthopimpla flavolineata) in August. This mid-summer rebound on P. tobira was primarily attributed to its dense evergreen foliage providing a microclimatic refuge, rather than an active flowering resource. Analysis of shared dominant taxa (H. axyridis, Cotesia spp., and E. balteatus) showed highly significant seasonal fluctuations, with peak conservation during the wheat season. This study confirms that P. × fraseri and P. tobira have cross-cycle potential as a “natural enemy bank” in rice–wheat rotation agricultural systems. Their synergistic effects—integrating stable structural shelter with seasonal nutritional subsidies—support the conservation of diverse natural enemy communities throughout the annual crop cycle and significantly enhance the sustained pest control capacity of farmland ecosystems, identifying them as exemplary functional plants for ecological engineering in rice–wheat landscapes and providing a foundation for future studies on biological control efficacy. Full article

Asparagus (Asparagus officinalis L.) represents a high-value horticultural crop in Thailand with significant export potential; however, optimizing productivity in tropical environments requires a precise understanding of how cultivation practices and harvest seasons influence marketability. Here, a split-plot experiment arranged in a completely randomized design with three replications was conducted to examine how different crop methods and harvest seasons affect asparagus yield and quality in Lopburi Province, Thailand. The main plots were categorized by harvest season—summer, rainy, and winter—while the subplots included three crop methods: conventional, GAP, and organic. Summer produced the highest yield and asparagus with the greatest levels of total chlorophyll, phenolics, and DPPH radical scavenging activity compared to other seasons. Although the conventional methods yielded the most spears per plant, these spears contained higher levels of contaminants, including cadmium, lead, and nitrate. In contrast, spears from GAP and organic methods had higher phosphorus levels. However, no pesticide residues were found in any spear samples. Economically, the organic method had the shortest payback period, owing to lower production costs; despite a lower annual yield, stable market prices kept it profitable. In addition, organic soils had the highest levels of organic matter, nitrogen, and phosphorus. Overall, while conventional methods enhance the yield and certain qualities, organic farming, particularly when harvested in summer, yields the highest economic returns and the most sustainable system among those tested. Full article

Aimed at the practical challenge that pest occurrence in fruit and vegetable horticultural production exhibits strong environmental dependency, pronounced stage characteristics, and high sensitivity to control decision-making, a multimodal pest recognition and occurrence risk joint modeling method is proposed to address the limitation that conventional intelligent plant protection systems focus primarily on pest identification while lacking risk discrimination capability. Within a unified network framework, pest visual information and environmental temporal data are integrated through the construction of an environment-guided representation learning mechanism, a recognition–risk joint optimization strategy, and a risk-aware decision representation modeling structure. In this manner, pest category recognition and occurrence risk evaluation are conducted simultaneously, thereby providing direct decision support for precision prevention and control in fruit and vegetable production. Systematic experimental evaluation is conducted based on multi-crop and multi-year field data collected from Wuyuan County, Bayannur City, Inner Mongolia. Overall comparative results demonstrate that an identification accuracy of $0.947$, a precision of $0.936$, and a recall of $0.924$ are achieved on the test set, all of which significantly outperform mainstream visual detection models such as YOLOv8, DETR, and Mask R-CNN. In terms of detection performance, mAP@50 and mAP@75 reach $0.962$ and $0.821$, respectively, indicating stable localization and discrimination capability under complex backgrounds and dense small-target conditions. For the occurrence risk discrimination task, a risk accuracy of $0.887$ is obtained, representing an improvement of approximately $4.5$ percentage points compared with the simple multimodal feature concatenation method. Cross-crop, cross-site, and cross-year generalization experiments further show that risk accuracy remains above $0.84$ with stable recognition performance under significant distribution shifts. Ablation studies verify the synergistic contributions of the proposed core modules to overall performance improvement. The results indicate that the proposed framework enables the transition from single recognition to risk-driven plant protection decision-making, providing a technically viable pathway for pest diagnosis and control strategy optimization in fruit and vegetable horticulture. Full article

Feed availability and quality remain major constraints to ruminant productivity in West Africa, where livestock systems rely heavily on locally available resources such as natural forages, crop residues and agro-industrial by-products. However, reliable ration formulation requires accurate information on feed chemical composition, while existing data are fragmented and highly variable. This study conducted a systematic review of peer-reviewed literature published between 2000 and 2025 to synthesize available data on the chemical composition of ruminant feeds in West Africa. Following PRISMA guidelines, 44 studies reporting quantitative feed composition data were retained. Feed resources were classified into agro-industrial by-products, agricultural by-products and forages, and descriptive statistics were calculated for key nutritional parameters. The results revealed substantial variability in nutrient composition across feed types and even within the same feed resource. Cottonseed cake emerged as a major protein-rich supplement, legume haulms showed higher nutritional value than cereal residues, and several browse species such as Moringa oleifera and Leucaena leucocephala demonstrated high protein potential. These findings highlight that fixed feed composition values are poorly suited to heterogeneous tropical feeding systems. The reference ranges established in this review provide a more reliable basis for feed evaluation and ration formulation and can support the development of locally adapted feeding strategies and decision-support tools for West African livestock systems. Full article

Abscisic acid (ABA) regulates diverse aspects of plant growth and secondary metabolism, yet its concentration-dependent effects on rhizomatous spice crops remain poorly understood at the systems level. Here, we investigated the phenotypic, physiological, hormonal, and multi-omics responses of ginger (Zingiber officinale) to foliar-applied ABA across a concentration gradient. Exogenous ABA modulated ginger growth in a distinctly non-linear manner. Low-to-moderate concentrations (5–15 mg/L) significantly enhanced aboveground branching and belowground rhizome yield, whereas high concentration (35 mg/L) inhibited branching while promoting structural carbohydrate accumulation, revealing a concentration-dependent trade-off between growth and secondary wall deposition. Hormone profiling uncovered global reprogramming of the endogenous hormonal network, with optimal ABA (15 mg/L) coordinately elevating growth-promoting hormones and defense-related signals, while high concentrations suppressed multiple hormone pathways and triggered negative feedback inhibition of endogenous ABA biosynthesis. Integrated metabolomic and transcriptomic analyses identified convergent enrichment on phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, gingerol biosynthesis, and plant hormone signal transduction. Co-expression network analysis revealed a highly interconnected module of 583 genes linking hormone signaling to secondary metabolism, with coordinated up-regulation of key enzymes from phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) to polyketide synthase under 15 mg/L ABA explaining the 64% increase in 6-gingerol content. This study establishes a mechanistic chain from ABA perception to improved ginger yield and quality, mediated by hormonal crosstalk and transcriptional activation of the phenylpropanoid-gingerol network. We propose an “ABA optimization window” of 5–15 mg/L for precision cultivation of high-quality ginger, providing a systems-level framework for understanding hormone-mediated regulation of secondary metabolism in medicinal and spice crops. Full article

Agriculture faces escalating challenges from pests, diseases, and climatic stresses that threaten global food security. Green nanotechnology offers a sustainable approach to enhance crop protection and productivity by using plant-based methods to synthesize metallic nanoparticles (NPs), reducing chemical inputs and environmental impacts. This review presents the framework of green nanotechnology in agriculture, focusing on biogenic sources of nanoparticle synthesis (especially plant extracts), mechanisms of nanoparticle formation and stabilization by phytochemicals, and characterization techniques for green-synthesized NPs. We examine the application of plant-derived metallic nanoparticles as nanofertilizers to improve nutrient use efficiency and crop yields, as nanopesticides to manage plant pathogens and pests, and as nano-enabled agents to enhance tolerance to abiotic stresses such as salinity and drought. Recent studies demonstrate that green-synthesized NPs can increase wheat and rice yields by 13–55%, improve nutrient-use efficiency by up to 80–90% compared to conventional fertilizers, and provide effective pathogen control at reduced active ingredient doses, while reducing dependence on conventional agrochemicals. The review also discusses key challenges limiting large-scale adoption, including production scalability, biological variability in synthesis, potential phytotoxicity at high concentrations, regulatory uncertainties, and gaps in knowledge regarding nanoparticle fate and safety. Overall, green-synthesized metallic nanoparticles emerge as promising tools for improving crop productivity and protection in an eco-friendly manner, supporting the transition toward more sustainable agricultural systems. Full article

The extensive utilisation of chemical fertilisers and pesticides in agricultural contexts has precipitated substantial environmental degradation, thereby amplifying the repercussions of climate change. Furthermore, this overuse poses a threat to the sustainability and resilience of global food production systems. The utilisation of microalgae-based biostimulants is a novel and sustainable approach that has the potential to enhance crop productivity and resilience, while reducing dependence on chemical pesticides and their negative effects. The present study evaluated the effectiveness of two novel microalgae-based formulations on the performance of processing tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) crops under field conditions in Spain and Portugal. The formulation comprised enzymatically hydrolysed biomass from L. platensis, N. gaditana and A. obliquus, in combination with olive mill wastewater (alpechin) and aromatic plant extracts. The mixture was applied through drip irrigation and foliar spraying. The application of combined foliar and drip treatments resulted in a substantial enhancement in gross yield up to 51.9%. Concurrently, the acceptable raw material yield demonstrated a notable increase up to 44.9%. Furthermore, an increase in average fruit weight by 2–9 g was recorded. A subsequent foliar nutrient analysis revealed elevated concentrations of N, P, K, Ca, Mg, Fe, and Cu in the plants treated with biostimulants, achieving 3.61, 52.94, 5.96, 36.53, 22.28, 60.41 and 71.32% respectively in the plot L4 with foliar treatment. Although the efficacy of pest control measures was slightly lower than that of conventional pesticides, no significant increase in the incidence of diseased was observed. These findings indicated that microalgae-based biostimulants have the potential to function as sustainable agricultural inputs capable of enhancing crop yields and quality while reducing dependence on chemical fertilisers and pesticides. The outcomes of the study demonstrate the efficacy of microalgae-based formulations in enhancing the yield and quality of tomato crops. This is achieved while maintaining optimal plant health and reducing the reliance on synthetic fertilisers and pesticides. Full article