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The expansion of food production is becoming more important due to a rising world population, which is relying on food security on regional and local scales. Intensive food production systems exert a negative impact on the regional ecosystem because of agrochemical pollution and nutrient-rich water discharging into nearby rivers. Furthermore, these systems highly depend on regional water resources, causing water scarcity and soil erosion due to the overexploitation of natural resources in general. The objective of this article is to review the water usage in the two most water-intensive food production systems, agriculture and aquaculture, showing lacking areas like system management and climate change, which must be considered in the implementation of a sustainable water footprint. In addition, the review includes an analysis of the combination of both production systems in aquaponic food production and the possibilities of water saving. There are a variety of analyses related to water usage for crop and aquatic animal production, but in these analyses, there is a lack of information about system management in general, which includes cleaning processes, water substitution, pond removal, water evaporation, and, especially in aquaculture, the water usage required for industrially elaborated fish feed.

As a recently explored agricultural practice, the controlled elicitation of plants offers high potential in multiple crop needs as growth promotion, activation of defenses and the production of specific metabolites. Extracellular DNA has been identified as a plant immune system elicitor but some aspects of the plant response have not been explored. In the present work, five DNA treatments were applied in tomato plants and the response of catalase, superoxide dismutase, phenylalanine ammonia lyase activities, hydrogen peroxide, total phenolics and flavonoid contents in leaves were spectrophotometrically measured. Treatments differed by the source and concentration of DNA and plant phenological stage of application. Furthermore, mathematical modeling and principal component analysis were performed to explore the behavior of each variable and their interaction. The most effective treatment was the self-DNA application in young plants based on the intensity and duration of immune system activation. The information given by the measured variables correlated positively with the phenylpropanoid pathway markers and negatively with catalase and superoxide dismutase activities. Results reported here propose an easy way to evaluate plant immune response activation by DNA and any other elicitor and provide useful information for future development of controlled elicitation strategies in crop production.

Viruses are estimated to be responsible for approximately 50% of the emerging plant diseases, which are difficult to control, and in some cases, there is no cure. It is essential to develop therapy practices to strengthen the management of these diseases caused by viruses in economically important crops. Metal nanoparticles (MeNPs) possess diverse physicochemical properties that allow for them to have a wide range of applications in industry, including nanomedicine and nano-agriculture. Currently, there are reports of favorable effects of the use of nanoparticles, such as antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral effects, in animals and plants. The potential antiviral property of MeNPs makes them a powerful option for controlling these histological agents. It is crucial to determine the dosage of NPs, the application intervals, their effect as a biostimulant, and the clarification of the mechanisms of action, which are not fully understood. Therefore, this review focuses on discussing the ability of metal nanoparticles and metal oxides to control viruses that affect agriculture through an exhaustive analysis of the characteristics of the particles and their interaction processes for a possibly beneficial effect on plants.

Chili pepper (Capsicum spp.) is one of the most economically important horticultural crops in the world; its production for the food and pharmaceutical industries has been increasing worldwide. The economic importance of this crop is due, in part, to the nutraceutical properties derived from its secondary metabolism. Drought is the main environmental factor that affects crop production. Nevertheless, studies involving water deficit have considered short-term responses to sharp water deficit rather than long-term acclimation processes through moderate and gradually increasing water deficits, which omitted the dynamics and profile of the secondary metabolism that are part of the plant’s defence system against this stress factor. The present study aimed to identify the different mechanisms that chili pepper plants use to cope with drought stress using a progressive decrease and increase of water availability, conditions that commonly occur for crops in open fields. Four treatments were applied as follows: gradual water deficit (GWD), initial waterlogging with gradual water deficit (IWGD), sudden water deficit with gradual recovery (SWDR), and no deficit of water (NDW). These conditions should represent a more real situation similar to that faced by plants in the agricultural environment. In order to evaluate the response mechanisms associated with these water deficits, changes in phenological variables, proline accumulation, and the gene expression of phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL), chalcone synthase (CHS), peroxidase (POD), and superoxide dismutase (SOD) were measured in chili pepper plants growing on land under different irrigation regimes in two contrasting soil types in areas where chili pepper plants are cultivated in central Mexico. The variables evaluated showed a differentiated response of the mechanisms in plants growing under different levels of water deficit. Given the differential response observed for the gene expression and morphological and biochemical variables studied in chili pepper plants against different water regimes, in this work, this may have implications for more efficient use of water in crops with high nutraceutical content, in addition to prospects for using products derived from secondary metabolism in the pharmaceutical industry.