Search Results (1,364)

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is considered one of the most important cereals globally, contributing significantly to the human population’s caloric and protein requirements. Therefore, ensuring a sufficient yield of wheat for global consumption plays a significant role in maintaining food security in different parts of the world. With increasing demand and dwindling production capacity, due to increasingly uncertain growing conditions, projections indicate that there should be an upswing of 60–70% in wheat productivity by 2050 to fulfill the requirement. However, drought represents the most significant and widespread abiotic limitation to global wheat production, currently resulting in approximately 10% yield losses worldwide. Furthermore, each additional 1 °C increase in temperature is anticipated to decrease staple calorie production by 4.4%. The factors contributing to drought in wheat, as well as its impact on the plant’s biochemical, physiological, and morphological structures, include altered rainfall patterns, elevated atmospheric CO₂ levels, increased temperatures, hot and dry winds, and restricted soil water availability. These factors initiate a series of morphological, physiological, and biochemical disruptions that hinder wheat growth and productivity. Drought impact on wheat starts at biochemical levels through reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation and degradation of chlorophylls, and tolerance to stress is influenced by a polygenic system where numerous genes contribute minor effects and interact significantly with environmental factors transitioning to osmoprotectants. At the physiological level, drought alters the water content in the plant body, leading to reduced net photosynthetic rates, stomatal conductance, transpiration rates, and water utilization efficiency. At the morphological level, drought impacts all kinds of structures such as roots, shoots, leaves and reproductive parts. To counter these effects, wheat develops a set of tolerant mechanisms called drought escape, avoidance and tolerance. An increase in trichomes and leaf waxes, alteration of root–shoot ratios, the staying green phenomenon, production of stress proteins like proline, activity of enzymes including superoxide dismutase (SOD), ascorbate peroxidase, catalase, etc., osmotic adjustment, abscisic acid (ABA) accumulation, expression of dehydration proteins called dehydrin, etc., contribute towards drought tolerance. This comprehensive review investigates the intricate interactions between drought and various wheat genotypes, emphasizing their substantial impacts on plant physiology, biochemistry, growth dynamics, and grain yield. Additionally, this review assesses a variety of genetic and biotechnological strategies aimed at enhancing the resilience of wheat genotypes to drought stress. By integrating recent research findings with practical applications, this review provides a detailed framework for improving the adaptive capacity of wheat plants to withstand the escalating threats of drought stress, thereby supporting sustainable wheat production in a changing climate. Addressing drought stress through genetic and biotechnological management practices is crucial for maintaining wheat productivity. Full article

Planetary health recognizes that human health, well-being, and sustainable development depend fundamentally on the integrity of natural ecosystems that regulate climate, maintain biodiversity, secure food and water resources, and protect populations from environmental risks. As environmental degradation increasingly threatens this life-support system, there is a growing need for economic indicators that explicitly recognize the value of natural capital alongside conventional measures of development. Gross Ecosystem Product (GEP) has emerged as comprehensive metric for quantifying the monetary value of ecosystem services and informing evidence-based policy. This study estimates India’s GEP for the period 2011–2012 to 2020–2021 using an ecosystem accounting framework aligned with the System of Environmental Economic Accounting (SEEA). The analysis integrates provisioning services (timber, non-timber forest products, fuelwood, and fisheries), regulating services (carbon sequestration), and cultural services (nature-based tourism) using market price, replacement cost, and benefit transfer methods based on secondary data from national and published sources. India’s total GEP is estimated at US$207.05 billion, highlighting the substantial but under-recognized contribution of ecosystems to the national economy and societal well-being. Regulating services dominate GDP, with carbon sequestration alone accounting for US$166.73 billion, followed by provisioning services, while cultural services contribute a relatively smaller share. These findings reveal a significant gap between ecosystem contributions and their representation in conventional metrics such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP), underscoring the limitations of growth-centric development frameworks. By integrating ecosystem values into national accounting, GEP provides a practical tool for advancing planetary health, strengthening climate resilience, conserving biodiversity, supporting ecosystem-based management, and guiding policies that align economic development with ecological sustainability and long-term human well-being. Full article

Grain price stability is fundamental to global food security, yet the extent to which major grain futures markets contribute to international price discovery and transmit price signals across borders remains insufficiently understood. This study constructs a measurement–mechanism–pathway framework to analyze the international price transmission dynamics of four grain futures: wheat, rice, corn, and soybean. We apply the Diebold–Yilmaz spillover index, OLS regressions with mediation analysis, and fsQCA. All four crops display predominantly negative net spillover indices, with rice exhibiting the strongest transmission and soybean the weakest. At the domestic level, yield is associated with stronger price transmission through an inventory channel, while the effects of price regulation are asymmetric. Notably, soybean producer subsidies are unexpectedly associated with stronger rather than weaker international price transmission. At the international level, crude oil prices are associated with weaker grain price transmission primarily through the freight cost channel, and speculative capital is associated with reduced transmission capacity through tail-price episodes. Configuration analysis reveals two shared improvement routes, namely capacity building with policy support and risk containment via volatility suppression, together with four commodity-specific pathways. These findings provide systematic evidence and policy insights for mitigating grain price contagion and strengthening food system resilience. Full article

Andean livestock agroecosystems depend on grassland and soil functionality to sustain productivity, threatened by climate-driven glacial retreat, pasture degradation, and increasingly frequent frosts, hailstorms, and droughts. Grounded in the Resilience Thinking framework for socio-ecological systems, this study proposes and validates an explanatory model examining how perceived climate change impacts (IMP) drive the adoption of regenerative livestock farming (ADOP) and impact the deterioration of livestock performance (DES), with adaptive capacity and resilience (RES) as a mediating construct. Regenerative livestock farming is operationalized through soil, forage, water, and biodiversity management, animal welfare, and climate adaptation strategies. Survey data from 91 South American camelid producers in the Puno region, Peru, were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) with second-order constructs. Climate impacts emerge as the strongest antecedent of adaptive resilience (β = 0.718) and regenerative adoption (β = 0.604) and have a significant direct effect on performance deterioration (β = 0.292; p = 0.041). However, resilience does not significantly predict adoption (β = 0.075; p = 0.619), revealing institutional, technological, and knowledge-related barriers that disconnect adaptive capacity from ecological transformation. Both adoption (β = 0.327; p = 0.002) and resilience (β = 0.335; p = 0.003) are positively associated with performance deterioration, suggesting reactive containment rather than consolidated restoration. Findings indicate adaptive rather than transformative resilience in high-Andean livestock systems, indicating that an effective regenerative transition requires participatory, context-sensitive approaches supported by policies and technical assistance that strengthen long-term productive sustainability and food security in vulnerable communities. Full article

In horticulture, a delayed shipment or failed food-safety check can rapidly cut off market access, yet strategic risk management remains weakly developed. This paper examines how artificial intelligence (AI), agritech, and business model innovation can reduce uncertainty and strengthen resilience across horticultural value chains. Using a structured conceptual review, it integrates six literature streams: agricultural risk, supply-chain risk management, strategic and enterprise risk management, farming-system resilience, digital innovation and AI, and business model innovation. The synthesis connects risk exposure to five digital functions (sensing, predicting, verifying, coordinating, and deciding) to dynamic capabilities, business model and governance conditions, and resilience outcomes. It develops five connected propositions concerning the conversion of information into action, credible digital verification, adoption conditions, market-access resilience, and business-model-enabled shared capability. Market-access resilience is introduced as the capacity to maintain or restore verified quality, food-safety assurance, traceability, compliance, and buyer relationships during disruption. The propositions are theoretically derived and empirically informed, providing a foundation for further empirical validation, particularly of the complete market-access and business model relationships. The findings imply that digital technologies contribute to resilience only when supported by coordinated action, sound data governance, human oversight, and viable, inclusive delivery models. Full article

Background/Objectives: While Lebanon’s Vision 2030 prioritizes strengthening Lebanon’s chronically constrained, fragmented, and shocked primary healthcare system, implementation is hindered by weak sensing mechanisms, misaligned spatial distribution, and poorly integrated referral pathways. This study develops a preliminary, context-specific, systems-level healthcare policy assessment and framework for primary healthcare reform by applying biomimicry principles derived from the drought-resistant root architecture of grapevine (Vitis vinifera). Methods: Publicly available data from the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health, national assessments, and non-governmental organization registries were synthesized to examine mismatches between healthcare need and service capacity. We developed a preliminary healthcare Need Score for Lebanon’s eight governorates based on clinical demand, capacity strain, and socioeconomic vulnerability. An Agent-Based Approach within a biomimicry framework was used to translate grapevines’ biological strategies into healthcare policy design principles. Results: Structural deficiencies were identified in Lebanon’s primary healthcare system, including absence of standardized need-based sensing, uneven geographic service distribution, weak-referral integration, and limited adaptive feedback. Our preliminary Need Score was used four clinical demand indicators for iron deficiency, neonatal and maternal deaths, pre-mature births and birth defects, and disease incidence. Service-capacity strain indicators were primary healthcare center density and staffing. Finally, socioeconomic vulnerability indicators were percentages for non-Lebanese population and food insecurity. The proposed policy framework can translate frontline stress signals to rule-based responses, guide adaptive redistribution of capacity, and structurally anchor primary healthcare centers to referral hubs through defined catchments and electronic referral loops. Conclusions: Biomimicry can shed insight into how to improve primary healthcare governance under chronic scarcity. Need Scores and biological resilience principles can strengthen primary healthcare systems in low-resource settings while aligning with healthcare policy objectives like those in Lebanon’s Vision 2030. Full article

Climate change is increasingly reshaping agricultural systems across Central Europe through rising temperatures, altered precipitation regimes, droughts, heatwaves, and expanding biological risks. These pressures threaten the stability of conventional cropping systems while simultaneously affecting food safety, storage systems, processing infrastructure, and regional food security. This review explores the role of adaptive crop diversification as a key strategy for enhancing agricultural resilience in the face of future climate uncertainty. Drawing on IPCC AR6 scenarios, CMIP6 simulations, and EURO-CORDEX projections, we analyze major climatic stressors affecting Central European agriculture, including heat stress, hydrological instability, soil degradation, invasive pests, fungal pathogens, and mycotoxin contamination. Particular attention is given to shifts in crop suitability and the growing relevance of climate-resilient crops such as sorghum, millet, quinoa, chickpea, lentil, soybean, camelina, hemp, and miscanthus. Beyond field-level adaptation, the review highlights the critical role of post-harvest systems, storage infrastructure, processing adaptability, and food safety within climate-resilient food systems. We additionally evaluate socioeconomic barriers, policy frameworks, and emerging technological approaches, including digital agriculture and artificial intelligence. A central contribution of this review is the integration of crop diversification, food safety, post-harvest adaptation, and governance challenges within a unified climate-resilience framework for Central European agriculture. We conclude that long-term agricultural resilience in the region will require a systemic transformation that integrates ecological, technological, economic, institutional, and social dimensions of adaptation. Full article

Digital technologies are widely expected to reshape supply chains, yet the conditions under which they deliver operational and sustainability-related value in practice remain insufficiently understood. This study examines how digital technologies influence supply chain operations and performance, where performance is operationalized through demand forecasting accuracy, cost, lead time, visibility, and inter-organizational collaboration, and asks how these technologies can support more resilient, resource-efficient, and sustainable supply chain operations. The study adopts an exploratory qualitative design based on semi-structured interviews with eight supply chain professionals at manager level or above, drawn from the aluminum, elevator, railway, food, and consumer goods industries in Austria, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic, and conducted between March and June 2025. A structured literature review complements the interview evidence. Within this exploratory sample, Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics were the most widely adopted technologies (five of eight participants each), followed by the Internet of Things (four of eight) and Automation (five of eight), while no participant reported active Blockchain deployment. Reported benefits concentrated on forecasting accuracy, operational efficiency, visibility, and collaboration, whereas high implementation costs, legacy system integration, skill shortages, and regulatory uncertainty formed the principal barriers. The central finding is a conditional relationship between adoption and competitiveness: internal operational gains did not automatically translate into competitive advantage among the professionals interviewed, but appeared to require strategic alignment, cross-functional integration, and performance measurement. Because digitally enabled forecasting, inventory positioning, and resource optimization also reduce waste and improve resource utilization, the findings link digital supply chain transformation to sustainable development objectives. This exploratory study of eight participants therefore provides practitioner-level propositions and a research agenda for digital and sustainable supply chain transformation rather than statistically generalizable findings. Full article

Salinity is a growing problem for cereal cultivation because it imposes multiple stresses, including osmotic, ionic, nutritional, and oxidative constraints, on the crop. Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) is considered a climate-smart C4 cereal for food, feed, fodder, forage, and bioenergy, but recent studies indicate that salinity continues to hinder establishment, biomass formation, reproductive growth, and yield. This review compiles the literature on the impacts of salinity on sorghum from 2021 to 2026, with a focus on germination, vegetative growth, physiological and biochemical responses, ion homeostasis, genetic control, productivity, mitigation, and future breeding priorities. In total, 160 records were identified, 118 records were screened after duplicate removal, and 44 recent sources were included in the synthesis. Across comparable sorghum studies, saline/NaCl treatments of approximately 60–200 mM commonly reduced germination by about 20–40%, root and shoot elongation by 25–50%, and biomass by 20–55%, while tolerant genotypes generally maintained higher K⁺/Na⁺ balance, 40–60% greater biomass retention, or two- to five-fold stronger ion homeostasis indicators than sensitive lines under similar conditions. Salt stress also lowers leaf expansion, chlorophyll stability, gas exchange, dry matter accumulation, panicle fertility, and grain filling. Tolerant genotypes show greater antioxidant potential, osmotic adjustment, photosynthetic stability, and root system resilience. Recent omics and genome-wide association studies suggest that salinity tolerance in sorghum is polygenic and involves genes related to ion transport, stress signalling, antioxidant regulation, osmolyte metabolism, and growth maintenance. This review recommends a shift from descriptive trait lists to full-cycle field validation, multi-trait selection indices, and integrated packages combining breeding with seed priming, soil water management, amendments, and beneficial microorganisms. Full article

Background: Carbon-based energy systems drive climate change with growing pressure on public health, yet research on mental health, climate change, and carbon-intensive industries remains fragmented. Objective: This scoping review mapped how mental health outcomes of climate change relate to the carbon-based matrix, identifying conceptual approaches, methodological trends, and research gaps aligned with planetary health and the SDGs. Methods: This review was conducted following the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines, with searches in PubMed, Web of Science, and PsycINFO. Results: From 232 records, 38 studies (2015–2025) were included across six clusters: eco-anxiety and distress (n = 14); extreme events and mental disorders (n = 9); air pollution and neuropsychological outcomes (n = 7); environmental justice and vulnerable populations (n = 10); green spaces and resilience (n = 6); and public policy and sustainable responses (n = 7). The carbon-based matrix was proximally linked to mental health in studies on air pollution and extractivism, and served as context in studies on extreme climate events, food insecurity, and climate uncertainty. Conclusions: An equitable transition away from carbon-intensive systems is a public health priority, with co-benefits for mental well-being aligned with the SDGs. Full article

Immunonutrition continues to generate heterogeneous and often contradictory clinical outcomes, suggesting that nutrients do not exert fixed immunological effects but interact with the biological context in which they operate. Sarcopenic obesity (SO) represents a paradigmatic clinical model of this complexity, where chronic low-grade inflammation, mitochondrial dysfunction, anabolic resistance, metabolic inflexibility, and microbiota remodeling converge to compromise the adaptive capacity of integrated immunometabolic networks. We propose that this condition may be interpreted as a state of impaired immunometabolic plasticity, which may help explain the context-dependent variability of nutritional responses. Within this perspective, micronutrients are viewed not simply as cofactors supporting immune competence but as dynamic regulators of interconnected immunometabolic pathways. Particular attention is devoted to vitamin D and resveratrol, presented as complementary regulators of immunometabolic plasticity. Within the proposed framework, vitamin D may contribute to immunometabolic competence, whereas resveratrol may act as a broader signaling modulator through the SIRT1/AMPK–PGC-1α axis, influencing mitochondrial function, inflammatory tone, metabolic flexibility, and epigenetic adaptation. Beyond isolated compounds, bioactive-rich food matrices, exemplified by Opuntia ficus-indica, are discussed as examples of systems-level modulators capable of coordinating inflammatory, metabolic, redox, and microbiota-dependent biological circuitry. This review introduces immunometabolic plasticity as a conceptual framework linking nutritional signals to the coordinated regulation of immune and metabolic adaptation across diverse biological contexts. Finally, we discuss how biomarker-guided phenotyping, multi-omics integration, and context-aware nutritional interventions may provide a foundation for precision immunonutrition, shifting the field from generalized supplementation strategies toward restoration of adaptive immunometabolic resilience. Full article

Climate change poses significant challenges to agricultural production, water availability, and food and nutrition security, particularly in semi-arid regions where rural livelihoods depend heavily on rain-fed agriculture. In Eswatini, increasing temperatures, erratic rainfall, and recurrent droughts have intensified pressures on smallholder farming systems; however, limited empirical research has examined how climate variability simultaneously affects agriculture, water resources, and household food security within an integrated food–water–nutrition nexus framework. Therefore, this study assessed the impacts of climate change on agricultural production, water availability, food security, and access to nutritious food among smallholder households in the Lubombo Region of Eswatini. A concurrent triangulated mixed-methods approach was employed, combining quantitative data from 880 households with qualitative insights from open-ended responses. Descriptive statistics, Spearman’s correlation, binary logistic regression, and thematic analysis were used to analyse the data. The findings reveal that climate change significantly affects both agricultural and water systems, which in turn directly influence household food security outcomes. The majority of households reported declining crop yields (56.5%), widespread food shortages (79.5%), meal skipping (69.0%), and high levels of food-related anxiety (87.6%). Water insecurity is also prevalent, with over 83% of households experiencing water shortages and nearly all respondents indicating that climate change has affected water access. Correlation and regression analyses demonstrate that drought frequency and reduced rainfall are the strongest predictors of both water insecurity and food insecurity, highlighting the central role of climate variability. Water scarcity emerged as a critical pathway linking climate change to food insecurity, with strong associations between water shortages and reduced crop yields, food shortages, and coping strategies such as skipping meals. Qualitative findings further highlighted declining agricultural productivity, loss of traditional foods, reduced dietary diversity, and increased psychological stress associated with food insecurity. The study concludes that food insecurity in the Lubombo region is multidimensional, driven by the interconnected effects of climate variability, water scarcity, and socio-economic constraints. The findings emphasise the need for integrated, climate-resilient strategies that simultaneously address agricultural production, water resource management, and household adaptive capacity to enhance food and nutrition security. Future research should evaluate the effectiveness of nexus-based adaptation strategies and climate-smart interventions in enhancing long-term food, water, and nutrition security in vulnerable smallholder farming systems. Full article

Rapid urbanization has led to habitat fragmentation in peri-urban areas, continuously eroding the ecological foundation of sustainable food systems in urban–rural transition zones and posing a real threat to regional food security. Against the backdrop of urbanization disturbances, traditional nature-based solutions have limitations in addressing socioecological nonlinear responses, whereas digital tools offer new governance pathways for enhancing food system resilience. To elucidate the intrinsic mechanisms through which digital technology empowers the resilience of peri-urban food systems, this study, which is grounded in ecological wisdom theory, constructs a system dynamics model that integrates “digital technology-ecological perception-ecological wisdom capital” in a three-dimensional linkage. This model simulates the dynamic process through which sustainable food systems in urban–rural transition zones resist the risks of habitat fragmentation and achieve synergistic steady-state evolution. According to the simulation results, a synthesized steady-state transition in sustainable food systems can be regarded as a self-organizing phase transition process. During resource metabolism, system elements show strong nonlinear symbiotic and mutually beneficial features. Further, there is a significant time-lag effect on improving food system resilience through digital technology empowerment and policy coordination. Also, the effects of governance are not immediately visible. Further, as an important instrumental empowerment carrier, urban–rural spatial and information barriers can be broken through means like digital ecological monitoring. Moderate investment in this regard can promote the acceleration of the system’s self-organizing phase transition. Also, this can enhance resilience against disturbance from habitat fragmentation while ensuring food production and supply. Finally, the ecological carrying capacity of core food production spaces does not increase monotonically. This means that the system possesses an adaptive cyclical fluctuation mechanism, with a periodic oscillatory evolution of carrying capacity. This study breaks through static analytical paradigms, fills the quantitative research gap on the resilience evolution of peri-urban food systems driven by the integration of digital technology and ecological wisdom, and can provide scientific evidence and decision-making support for food–ecological collaborative governance in China’s urban–rural transition zones. Full article

Cadmium (Cd) is a highly toxic non-essential heavy metal that severely impairs plant growth, compromises crop yield and quality, and threatens food safety and human health. Jasmonic acid (JA) and salicylic acid (SA) are well-characterized endogenous phytohormones that serve as central regulators in modulating plant adaptive responses to Cd stress. This review comprehensively synthesizes current knowledge on the involvement of JA and SA in regulating Cd accumulation and tolerance in plants, including their Cd-induced biosynthetic dynamics and signaling transduction pathways, as well as their functions in restricting Cd uptake and translocation, modulating chelation and sequestration, reinforcing antioxidant defense systems and protecting photosynthetic apparatus. Moreover, we analyze the antagonistic and synergistic crosstalk between JA and SA, and discuss how this interplay shapes Cd resilience in plants. Finally, the application potential of JA and SA in developing Cd-safe crops and phytoremediation in Cd-contaminated farmland is explored. This review provides a systematic analysis of the regulatory roles of JA and SA in plant responses to Cd stress, along with an in-depth discussion of their crosstalk. These insights contribute to the rational development of hormone-based breeding strategies for Cd-safe crops and the optimization of agronomic management practices. Full article

This work reviews the strategic valorization of industrial by-products as sustainable sources of biopolymers and bioactive compounds, promoting a circular economy through the efficient use of renewable resources and reducing waste generation. These strategies contribute to lowering the carbon footprint of conventional packaging and plasticulture while supporting more resilient and diverse agriculture systems. Special emphasis is placed on processing roots and tubers as renewable raw materials for the production of biodegradable films for agronomic applications as eco-friendly alternatives to petroleum-based plastics and contributing to soil and ecosystem protection. Additionally, the incorporation of by-products from yerba mate (Ilex paraguariensis) demonstrate significant potential as both matrix-forming and filler materials in biodegradable composites while also providing antioxidant activity and pH-sensing capacity. This sustainable framework is further expanded through the utilization of non-traditional species like rosehip (Rosa rubiginosa), Aloe vera (Aloe barbadensis), and topinambur (Helianthus tuberosus), which provide versatile functional matrices and bioactive compounds. Finally, the development of active and intelligent food packaging is addressed. Extracting natural pH-sensitive pigments from red cabbage and topinambur flowers enables the formulation of eco-friendly inks for real-time freshness monitoring. Ultimately, integrating these waste streams drives technological disruption, scaling sustainable, tailored solutions for global industry needs. Full article