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Worldwide pesticides are used by farmers for growing more food on less land by protecting crops from pests, diseases and weeds as well as raising productivity per hectare. Also, pesticides enable farmers to produce safe, quality foods at affordable prices. Therefore, the market for agricultural pesticides is anticipated to rise by $ 26.23 billion between 2021 and 2025. Pesticide residues can be discovered in a wide range of common foods and drinks, such as prepared meals, water, wine, fruit juices, snacks, and animal feeds. Furthermore, it should be noticed that chemical pesticides have been linked to a variety of detrimental health consequences, including impacts on the skin, gastrointestinal system, nervous system, respiratory system, reproductive system, and endocrine system. The current review was carried out using an objective mixture of primary and secondary information, including inputs from key participants in pesticides industry. Also, it aims at highlighting the urgent need for a new concept in agriculture involving a drastic reduction in the use of chemical pesticides, driving the market to bio-based pesticides.

Varieties of dioecious hemp (Cannabis sativa L) created at ARDS Lovrin, Lovrin-110, Silvana, Armanca and Teodora, is characterized by the production of strains exceeding 10 t/ha, a fiber content of 25-30 % and can be extended in culture both in our country and in the European Union and not only, due to a low THC content below 0.2%. Dioecious hemp varieties exhibit a high ecological plasicity, when applying appropriate technology they achieve high yields. The researches carried out in the field of cultivation of dioecious hemp in Romania, for stems and seeds, have shown that it can be used in various industries (textile, cellulose, food, etc.) from where to result in high quality products. Following the study undertaken in the period 2021-2022, at ARDS Lovrin, it can be concluded that the variety Armanca has the highest yield of stems per hectare, with an increase of 2373.5 kg/ha, 29.1% more than the yield obtained by the control variety Silvana.

Fusarium graminearum (Fusarium Head Blight - FHB) is a dangerous pathogen of the cereals producing mycotoxins harmful for humanand animal health. The quality of the wheat grains is severely affected in the years with FHB epidemics due to the high mycotoxins levelthat can overpass maximum allowable concentrations, with implications for food safety. The purpose of the work was to investigatesome variables involved in the contamination of the wheat grains with several harmful mycotoxins (DON, ZON and T-2) in conditions ofFHB natural infection in an epidemic year. The main finding of the results highlighted that the low ears densities of wheat crop canopydeterminate high FHB attack frequency, too. Climate conditions from May 2019 were very favourable for the evolution of FHB epidemicsin western Romania. This fact was confirmed by the experimental results of FHB attack, and later by the concentrations of mycotoxins(DON) over the maximum allowable concentrations from the wheat grains at the harvesting moment. The overpass of DON concentrationwas found in 15 from the total 16 wheat varieties from the experiment. Positive significant correlations were found between DON andT-2 and between DON and fungus attack intensity. According with the results, in FHB epidemic year some of the most influential factorsin the contamination of the wheat grains with DON, ZON and T-2 in the order of their importance are: ears density, frequency of theattack on ear, number of diseased ears and attack intensity on ears

Amorpha fruticosa L. (false indigo bush) is an invasive shrub species from Fabaceae family originating from North America. Nowadays this species creates great problems because it is invading floodplains along the rivers from Europe, even the Danube River floodplain reaching to the Danube Delta. The floodplain area of the river Mure? is highly affected by this invasion, this species occupying great surfaces of grassland and arable land. The researches were developed on the lowland area alongside the river Mure? (Arad County, western Romania) in the perimeter of the locality Pecica, respectively belonging to Mures Floodplain Natural Park. The purpose of the work was to characterize different relationships between the features of the grassland vegetation with soil features in three different situations, respectively permanent grassland, grassland totally invaded with A. fruticosa, and transitional grassland partially invaded with A. fruticosa. The soil samples were collected from 0 - 25 cm depth. The researches were investigated the influence of the false indigo bush invaded grassland on the soil features as pH, nitrogen index, total nitrogen, humus content, phosphorus, potassium and carbonates. The considered grassland vegetation features related with the soil features were: floristic composition (main functional groups of plants, some biodiversity indexes and pastoral value. The obtained results showed the existence of complex relationships among the analysed vegetation and soil features.

Almonds can be infected by mycotoxigenic fungi both during the vegetation and during storage after harvesting. Most of the times the almonds are healthy, but during the improper storage they can be contaminated by fungi from the genus Aspergillus, Fusarium and Penicillium. The mentioned fungi are very dangerous for health because they are producing carcinogenic mycotoxins. The purpose of the work was to identify the fungi that are growing on the marketed almonds when they are placed on culture media after a previous sterilization. The biological material consisted in raw almonds bought from supermarket. The almonds were chosen in such manner to originate from different countries, respectively USA, Italy, Spain, South Africa and Germany, there being obtained six samples with three replicates. The almonds from all the 18 samples were placed on culture media in Petri plates and were introduced in incubator at a temperature of 25 oC for 7 days. On the almonds from the culture media were developed after seven days the following fungi: Fusarium sp., Aspergillus flavus, Penicillium sp., Aspergillus niger and Rhizopus sp. High contamination rate was noticed in the case of the fungus A. niger. There was highlighted the variant originating from USA with 93.18%. In the opposite situation is the variant of bio almonds from Spain contaminated in a 14% rate. The samples from Germany and Spain were massively contaminated, respectively between 72 and 83%. Regarding Aspergillus flavus fungus, the lowest contamination rate was registered in the variant from USA (18%) and the highest in the sample from Spain conventionally cultivated (79%). The variants of bio almonds were contaminated in different rates, respectively 30% (Italia) and 66% (Spain).