Explore the vast range of titles available.

In recent years the importance of sustainable agriculture has risen to become one of the most important issues in agriculture. In addition, plant diseases continue to play a major limiting role in agricultural production. The control of plant diseases using classical pesticides raises serious concerns about food safety, environmental quality and pesticide resistance, which have dictated the need for alternative pest management techniques. In particular, nutrients could affect the disease tolerance or resistance of plants to pathogens. However, there are contradictory reports about the effect of nutrients on plant diseases and many factors that influence this response are not well understood. This review article summarizes the most recent information regarding the effect of nutrients, such as N, K, P, Mn, Zn, B, Cl and Si, on disease resistance and tolerance and their use in sustainable agriculture. There is a difference in the response of obligate parasites to N supply, as when there is a high N level there is an increase in severity of the infection. In contrast, in facultative parasites at high N supply there is a decrease in the severity of the infection. K decreases the susceptibility of host plants up to the optimal level for growth and beyond this point there is no further increase in resistance. In contrast to K, the role of P in resistance is variable and seemingly inconsistent. Among the micronutrients, Mn can control a number of diseases as Mn has an important role in lignin biosynthesis, phenol biosynthesis, photosynthesis and several other functions. Zn was found to have a number of different effects as in some cases it decreased, in others increased, and in others had no effect on plant susceptibility to disease. B was found to reduce the severity of many diseases because of the function that B has on cell wall structure, plant membranes and plant metabolism. Cl application can enhance host plants’ resistance to disease. Si has been shown to control a number of diseases and it is believed that Si creates a physical barrier which can restrict fungal hyphae penetration, or it may induce accumulation of antifungal compounds. Integrative plant nutrition is an essential component in sustainable agriculture, because in most cases it is more cost-effective and also environmentally friendly to control plant disease with the adequate amount of nutrients and with no pesticides. Nutrients can reduce disease to an acceptable level, or at least to a level at which further control by other cultural practices or conventional organic biocides are more successful and less expensive.

Climate change and increased climate variability are significant contemporary issues and create new challenges for agriculture and the whole food production chain [...]

Rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus L.) is a versatile and resilient plant with significant culinary, medicinal, and ecological value. This study evaluates the impact of four nitrogen (N) fertilization levels (0, 50, 100, and 150 kg N ha⁻¹) on the morphological, physiological, and agronomic traits, as well as vegetative indices, of rosemary over two growing seasons (2022 and 2023). The results indicate that plant height and leaf area index (LAI) increased with N application. Additionally, physiological characteristics such as chlorophyll content, photosynthetic efficiency, and assimilation rates (A) increased by an average of 32%, 17%, and 55%, respectively, compared to the control. Biomass production also improved with N fertilization, with yields rising by 32% in 2022 and 58% in 2023. Furthermore, both essential oil concentration and essential oil yield were enhanced by N application. Radiation use efficiency (RUE), water use efficiency (WUE), agronomic efficiency (AE), and partial factor productivity (PFP) also increased, indicating more efficient utilization of environmental resources. Moreover, higher N rates consistently enhanced vegetation indices, reflecting improved plant health, greenness, biomass, photosynthetic activity, and energy utilization. Therefore, this study highlights that the optimal N range appears to balance biomass yield and essential oil yield while maximizing the efficiency of environmental resource use.

Common vetch (Vicia sativa L.) is a well-adapted winter legume in the Mediterranean area, used for both forage and grain production. Phosphorus (P) is a key nutrient influencing plant growth, development, yield, and nutritional quality. This study evaluated how phosphorus availability (0 vs. 60 kg ha−1 P2O5) affected the growth, physiological characteristics, yield and environmental resource-use efficiency of two common vetch cultivars, BK-45 and Evinos, over two growing seasons (2020–2021 and 2021–2022). Phosphorus fertilization significantly enhanced vegetative growth, increasing plant height (37.5%) and leaf area index (57%) compared with the control. Improved physiological performance was also observed, as P application increased the chlorophyll content (SPAD) and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), particularly during later growth stages. Evinos showed better growth and chlorophyll content around anthesis, whereas BK-45 retained more chlorophyll at maturity. These influences on canopy development and photosynthetic capacity translated into improved yield components, with increases in seeds per pod (40%) and pods per plant (33%), resulting in a higher seed yield (0.127 kg m−2 vs. 0.06 kg m−2 in the control). The dry biomass increased by 50%, with BK-45 showing the strongest response to P fertilization. P fertilization also improved water-use efficiency (WUE) and radiation-use efficiency (RUE), thereby promoting resource use and also the sustainability of the crop. These findings underscore that phosphorus fertilization plays a key role in improvement of common vetch seed yield, forage yield and the sustainability of the cultivars, with the interactions depending on the seasonal variation.

Water stress is one of the most important yield constraints on crop productivity for many crops, and especially for maize, worldwide. In addition, climate change creates new challenges for crop adaptation as water stress appears even in areas where, until recently, there was an adequate water supply. The objective of the present study was to determine the effect of water availability on the morphological and physiological characteristics of maize, and also on the environmental cost under field conditions. The lowest water treatment (ET50) reduced leaf area index, plant height, chlorophyll content, assimilation rate and gas exchange parameters, photosynthetic efficiency, and silage yield. Furthermore, mild water stress (ΕΤ70) affected the characteristics that were studied but maintained a high crop yield. Moreover, the outputs/inputs ratio and energy efficiency showed similar trends, with the highest values under ΕΤ100 treatment and the lowest under ΕΤ50 treatment in two consecutive years. Therefore, the results of this study can be used by farmers in the Mediterranean area, who can maintain or improve their crop yield using a lower amount of water when the water supply is limited, thereby contributing to reducing the impact of global climate change and maintaining crop productivity.

Higher plants possess the ability to synthesize a great number of compounds with many different functions, known as secondary metabolites. Polyphenols, a class of flavonoids, are secondary metabolites that play a crucial role in plant adaptation to both biotic and abiotic environments, including UV radiation, high light intensity, low/high temperatures, and attacks from pathogens, among others. One of the compounds that has received great attention over the last few years is luteolin. The objective of the current paper is to review the extraction and detection methods of luteolin in plants of the Greek flora, as well as their luteolin content. Furthermore, plant species, crop management and environmental factors can affect luteolin content and/or its derivatives. Luteolin exhibits various biological activities, such as cytotoxic, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and antibacterial ones. As a result, luteolin has been employed as a bioactive molecule in numerous applications within the food industry and the biomedical field. Among the different available options for managing periodontitis, dental care products containing herbal compounds have been in the spotlight owing to the beneficial pharmacological properties of the bioactive ingredients. In this context, luteolin’s anti-inflammatory activity has been harnessed to combat periodontal disease and promote the restoration of damaged bone tissue.

Drought is one of the major yield constraints of crop productivity for many crops. In addition, nowadays, climate change creates new challenges for crop adaptation in stressful environments. The objective of the present study was to determine the effect of water stress on five cultivars of basil (Mrs Burns, Cinnamon, Sweet, Red Rubin, Thai) and whether water use efficiency (WUE) can be increased by using the appropriate cultivar. Water stress affected the fresh and dry weight and also the partitioning of dry matter to leaves, flowers, and stems. Also, there are cultivars, such as Mrs Burns and Sweet, which were not affected by the limited amount of water and continued to produce a high amount of dry matter and also showed high essential oil yield. Essential oil content was not affected by the irrigation; however, essential oil yield was affected by the irrigation, and the highest values were found at Mrs Burns. The water use efficiency was affected by the cultivar and irrigation level, and the highest was found at Mrs Burns. The results show that using appropriate cultivars basil can achieve higher WUE and allow saving water resources and utilizing fields in areas with limited water resources for irrigation.

In the Mediterranean basin, olive cultivation occupies the largest share of agricultural land, due to the region’s favorable soil and climatic conditions. However, the intensification of farming systems has had negative environmental impacts, for which diversified approaches such as agroforestry offer a potential solution. The objective of the present study was to determine the growth of barley, triticale, and pea as cover crops, as well as the respective intercrops in olive orchards and their productivity. The results showed that the intercropping of pea with barley and triticale had the highest yields in dry biomass compared to the other treatments, while barley monoculture recorded the highest yield in terms of grain. The findings demonstrated that intercropping enhances resource-use efficiency, particularly in terms of land productivity, Radiation-Use Efficiency, and Water-Use Efficiency. However, competitive dynamics varied significantly between species and across years, with pea often exhibiting dominance in biomass production, while cereals showed trade-offs in seed yield components due to shading and interspecific competition. These findings can be used for sustainable intensification strategies, ensuring higher productivity while minimizing external inputs in climate-vulnerable regions.

Intercropping is the cultivation of two or more crop species in the same space for a considerable proportion of the growth period. Farmers use cultivars that were bred under monoculture and there are no cultivars that have been evaluated under intercropping systems. The objective of the present study was to evaluate different cultivars of pea and wheat on intercropping systems. The experiment was conducted for two successive growing seasons (2018–2019 and 2019–2020) at the University Farm of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, using two cultivars of field pea and six cultivars of bread wheat, and all their mixture combinations. The growing seasons, the intercropping treatments, and the cultivars affected the grain yield, the yield components, and the land equivalent ratio (LER) and actual yield loss (AYL) values. The different cultivars showed different responses under the intercropping treatments, indicating that there are cultivars that show higher grain yield in mixtures. Based on the mean grain yield for both growing seasons, the mixture ‘Isard’–‘Mavragani’ showed higher grain yield by 86.5% and 55.7% compared with the mean grain yield of all other mixtures and monocultures, respectively. The total LER value of ‘Isard’–‘Mavragani’ was high in both years: 1.954 and 1.693 in 2018–2019 and 2019–2020, respectively. This multicriteria evaluation of winter wheat and field pea varieties exhibited the need for the selection of appropriate cultivars for intercropping systems that were previously assessed under intercropping conditions before their exploitation from the farmers.

The effect of the corm size of saffron (Crocus sativus L.) and the planting density was determined on a field study for six years. The objective of the present study was to determine the impact of the corm size and planting density on flower and stigma yields. Two corm sizes were used: corms with a diameter up to 2.5 cm and corms with a diameter greater than 2.5 cm, and five planting density: 22, 27, 33, 44 and 67 corms/m2 with planting distances 30, 25, 20, 15 and 10 cm on the plant row, respectively. The results showed that the year (growing season) and the interaction of year (growing season) with corm size affected all the characteristics that were studied. Over the six-year study period, there was a gradual increase in flowering from the first to the third year, followed by a decline in the fifth and sixth years. The yield of larger corms (greater than 2.5 cm) was higher during the first three years, while smaller corms (less than 2.5 cm) produced higher yields in the fourth through sixth years. On the contrary, the planting density, did not significantly affect the characteristics studied over the six years of cultivation and therefore did not affect the stigma yield of saffron. Therefore, corm size together with the environment are important factors that can affect the productivity and the longevity of the crop and should be considered when planting a new saffron cultivation.