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Rapid urban expansion and a booming population are placing immense pressure on our agricultural systems, leading to detrimental impacts on soil fertility and overall health. Due to the extensive use of agrochemicals in agriculture, the necessity to meet the expanding demand for food has also resulted in unsustainable farming practices. Around the world, biochar, a multipurpose carbonaceous material, is being used to concurrently solve issues with enhancing soil fertility, plant growth, and development under both normal and stressful circumstances. It improves water retention, fosters nutrient absorption, and promotes microbial activity, creating a fertile environment that supports sustainable and resilient agriculture. Additionally, biochar acts as a carbon sink, contributing to long-term carbon sequestration and mitigating climate change impacts. The major benefit of biochar is that it helps the adsorption process with its highly porous structures and different functional groups. Understanding the elements involved in biochar formation that determine its characteristics and adsorptive capacity is necessary to assure the viability of biochar in terms of plant productivity and soil health, particularly biological activity in soil. This paper focuses on the development, composition, and effects of biochar on soil fertility and health, and crop productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture, around the globe, is facing great challenges including the need to increase the production of nutrient-dense food and to withstand climate change's impact on water and soil conservation. Among these challenges, drought stress is considered the most overwhelming danger for the agriculture sector. Organic plant growth ingredients are frequently used to enhance the growth and production of field crops cultivated in normal and unfavorable conditions. The present study was designed to explore whether leaves extracted from various landraces of Moringa could play a defensive role against drought stress in rice. Seedlings were grown under three water conditions, i.e., normal conditions (control; 100% field capacity), moderate (75%), and severe drought (50%). Leaf extracts obtained from four Moringa landraces were used as foliar spray at the tillering, panicle initiation, and grain filling stages of cultivating rice plants. The levels of water stress negatively influenced photosynthetic pigment synthesis, gas exchange traits, antioxidant activities, and yield and grain quality parameters. Leaf extracts, at the rate of 3%, from all the landraces significantly enhanced the biochemical, physiological, and yield-related attributes of rice plants under normal and unfavorable growth conditions. Particularly, leaf extract from the Faisalabad landrace was the most effective biostimulant to increase photosynthetic (8.2%) and transpiration (13.3%) rates, stomatal conductance (8.3%), chlorophyll a (15.9%) and b (9.7%) contents, and carotenoids (10.4%) as compared to water spray. The maximum photosynthesis rate was observed at 14.27 µmol CO2 m−2 s−1 via application of leaf extract from the Faisalabad landrace followed by the DG Khan (13.92 µmol CO2 m−2 s−1) and Multan (13.9 µmol CO2 m−2 s−1) landraces, respectively. Improved grain yield (25.4%) and grain quality (an increase of 10.1% in amylose with a decrease of 2.8% in amylopectin) in rice plants along with enzymatic activities such as catalase (21.2%), superoxide dismutase (38.6%), and ascorbate peroxidase (24.3%) were observed at the peak after application of leaf extract from the Faisalabad landrace. The maximum grain yield of 53.59 g per plant was recorded when using Faisalabad landrace leaf extract and the minimum (40 g) using water spray. It is concluded from the findings of the current experiment that leaf extract from the Faisalabad landrace possesses higher biostimulant potential than other landraces and can be applied to mitigate the adverse impacts of drought stress with higher productivity and improved grain quality of rice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is needful to have alternative nutritious cereal crops to feed the ever increasing population and meet food security in the long run. Triticale (Triticosecale wittmack) is used for both livestock feed and human consumption as it contains higher protein and lysine contents than other cereals. Synthetic fertilizers applied in combination with organic amendments can play a pivotal role in increasing crop yields. Field experiments were designed to explore the impact of chemical fertilizers (NPK), press mud and animal manure on growth and yield of triticale genotypes cultivated under different irrigation regimes. Experiments were laid out by using randomized complete block design (RCBD) with split-split plot arrangements having three replicates and comprised of different treatments such as chemical fertilizers (T1 = control, T2 = NPK, T3 = press mud and T4 = animal manure), genotypes (G1 and G2), and irrigation regimes (I1 = full irrigation, I2 = irrigation was skipped at heading stage, and I3 = irrigation was skipped at heading and grain filling stages). Statistical analyses of collected data depicted the significant effect of chemical fertilizers, organic amendments, genotypes and irrigation regimes on various yield and yield related attributes of triticale. The highest increment in various observed attributes like plant height, leaves per plant, spike length, spikelets per spike, grains per spike, leaf area, 1000-grain weight, biological yield and grain yield was recorded in I1, followed by I2 and I3; in case of varieties, G1 performed better than G2 while T3 had maximum values in the aforementioned parameters as compared to other treatments. The application of NPK in combination with press mud and animal manure improved the growth and yield of triticale genotypes cultivated under different irrigation regimes. Thus, NPK along with organic amendments and irrigation practices can successfully be used to improve the growth and yield of triticale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optimization of agronomic practices for cultivation of quinoa, a super food and climate resilient crop, is critical to obtain its maximum grain yield under the current scenario of climate change. In the present experimentation, we evaluated the appropriate sowing time of ten elite lines of quinoa, already screened from USDA germplasm. Seeds of each line were sown in the experimental area at Square No. 22, Block No. 5, Directorate of Farm, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan on 15 November, 30 November and 15 December during quinoa cultivation season of 2019–2020. Sowing time significantly affected the emergence percentage, days taken to anthesis, chlorophyll contents, sodium and potassium concentrations in leaf, plant height, stem diameter, number of leaves and leaf area, panicle length, grain yield and 1000-grain weight. Lines; PIA-922, PIA-924, PIA-928 and PIA-929 performed better under first sowing and produced higher grain yield as compared to other lines. Similarly, PIA-921, PIA-922, PIA-925 and PIA-932 produced maximum biomass and grain yield under second sowing date while in case of third sowing date, PIA-926, PIA-928, PIA-930 and PIA-931 were observed more responsive regarding growth and yield attributes. A diversified pattern of agronomic, growth and yield contributing attributes of quinoa lines was observed when cultivated under varying sowing dates. The collected data will be very informative for the breeders and agronomists during selection and variety development process in future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

DNA fingerprinting and genetic diversity analysis of 79 early-maturing upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) cultivars were performed using Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) molecular markers. Out of 126 pairs of SSR primers, we selected 71 pairs that gave good polymorphisms and clear bands, had good stability, and showed even distribution on the cotton chromosomes, and 142 polymorphic genotypes were amplified. The average number of alleles amplified with the SSR primers was 2.01. The polymorphism information content (PIC) of the markers ranged from 0.1841 to 0.9043, with an average of 0.6494. The results of fingerprint analysis showed that nine varieties had characteristic bands, and at least six primer pairs could be used to completely distinguish all 79 cotton accessions. Using NTSYS-pc 2.11 cluster analysis, the genetic similarity coefficients between the cotton genotypes ranged from 0.3310 to 0.8705, with an average of 0.5861. All cotton accessions were grouped into five categories at a similarity coefficient of 0.57, which was consistent with the pedigree sources. At the same time, the average genetic similarity coefficients of early-maturing upland cotton varieties in China showed a low-high-low pattern of variation over time, revealing the development history of early-maturing upland cotton varieties from the 1980s to the present. This also indirectly reflects that in recent years, China's cotton breeders have focused on innovation and have continuously broadened the genetic resources for early-maturing upland cotton. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Population growth, food shortages, climate change and water scarcity are some of the frightening challenges being confronted in today's world. Water deficit or drought stress has been considered a severe limitation for the productivity of rice, a widely popular nutritive cereal crop and the staple food of a large portion of the population. A key stage in crop growth is seed emergence, which is mostly constrained by abiotic elements such as high temperatures, soil crusting and low water potential, which are responsible for poor stand establishment. Seed priming is a pre-sowing treatment of seeds that primes them to a physiological state that allows them to emerge more proficiently. The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential of leaf extracts from local and exotic moringa landraces as seed priming agents in rice cultivated under water deficit (75% field capacity) and control conditions (100% field capacity). Rice seeds were placed in an aerated solution of moringa leaf extract (MLE) at 3% from three obtained landraces (Faisalabad, Multan and an exotic landrace of India). The results obtained from the experimentation show that the water deficit regime adversely affected the studied indicators including emergence and growth attributes as well as physiological parameters. Among the priming agents, MLE from the Faisalabad landrace significantly improved the speed and spread of emergence of rice seedlings (time to start emergence at 23%, emergence index at 75%, mean emergence time at 3.58% and final emergence percentage at 46%). All the priming agents enhanced the growth, photosynthetic pigments, gas exchange parameters and antioxidant activities, particularly under the water deficit regime, but the maximum improvement was recorded by the MLE from the Faisalabad landrace. Therefore, the MLE of the Faisalabad landrace can be productively used to boost the seedling establishment and growth of rice grown under normal and water deficit conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern agriculture is mainly concerned with maximum resource use efficiency linked with greater productivity to feed the growing global population. The exogenous application of biostimulants is considered a sustainable approach to improve the growth and productivity of field crops. The present study was carried out to explore the comparative impact of biostimulants and synthetic compounds on quinoa crop (cultivar UAF-Q7), as it has gained significant popularity among agricultural scientists and farmers throughout the world, due to its high nutritional profile. A two-year field experiment was carried out at the Research Area of Directorate of Farms, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan. Application of moringa leaf extract (MLE) produced the maximum total chlorophyll (5.11 mg g−1) and carotenoids (1.2 mg g−1), compared with the control. Antioxidants' activities and gas exchange attributes were also recorded as the highest following MLE application. Mineral elements in root and in shoot were found highest in response to MLE application. Similarly, application of MLE significantly improved the growth and yield attributes of quinoa. Mineral elements of grain (Mg, Zn and Fe) were also significantly enhanced. MLE was found to be more responsive in improving the growth and quality compared with synthetic compounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Salt stress is recognized to negatively influence the fundamental processes in plants regarding growth and yield. The sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) is considered an important industrial crop because of the good quality of oil it produces that can be used for cooking purposes. The exogenous application of potassium (K) has been reported to enhance abiotic resistance and increase yield in crops. Here, we explored the impact of foliar-applied K at 500 ppm on the physiological and biochemical traits, antioxidant activities, and growth attributes of sunflower grown under salt stress (140 mM NaCl). The findings indicated that salinity stress adversely affected photosynthesis and various gas exchange characteristics. Foliar applied K markedly improved the stomatal conductance, transpiration rate, water use efficiency, CO2 assimilation rate, total soluble proteins, chlorophyll pigments, and upregulated antioxidant system, which are responsible for the healthy growth of sunflower hybrids grown under salinity stress. The shoot and root lengths, plant fresh and dry weights, and achene weight were significantly increased by K application. Overall, foliar applied K significantly improved all of the aforementioned attributes and can attenuate the deleterious influences of salinity stress in sunflower. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]