Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is a staple food crop highly sensitive to abiotic stresses, particularly during the early seedling stage. Evaluating rice tolerance at this phase offers a critical strategy for mitigating the impact of abiotic stress. We hypothesized that the constitutive metabolite content within the seed may confer tolerance to stress by enhancing seedling vigour traits. This study evaluated 13 rice genotypes under four different environments (control, salinity, drought, and high temperature). The analysis began with Principal Component Analysis (PCA) on 17 traits, which consistently identified four most contributing traits: Final Germination Percentage (FGP), root to shoot ratio length (RtSTRatioLen), shoot length (StLen), and total length (ToLen). The total variance contributed by the first two principal components (PC1 and PC2) was substantial: 50.9
Soil degradation, driven by the depletion of soil organic carbon, erosion, and declining soil health, threatens the sustainability of flood-prone riverine (Diara) agro-ecosystems. Addressing these issues is crucial for sustaining soil and ensuring a resilient agri-food system amid rising climate and anthropogenic pressures. This study addresses these issues by evaluated the effects of tillage (zero tillage vs conventional tillage, similar to 20 cm tillage depth), irrigation (flood irrigation vs sprinkler irrigation), and micronutrient (B-boron and Mo-molybdenum) application methods on soil health, carbon dynamics, and erosion in a (Sesbania aculeata)-chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)-Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) system over two-year cropping seasons (2019-2021). The experiment was conducted on calcareous alluvium soils (taxonomically classified as Typic Ustifluvents), where soil samples were collected from the 0-20 cm depth (composite of five cores per plot) to capture treatment effects. Results demonstrated that zero tillage (ZT) substantially improved overall soil health compared to conventional tillage (CT), as reflected in higher porosity (0.46 cc/cc), water holding capacity (50.84 %), and infiltration rate (1.72 cm/hr), along with 20-30 % increases in macro- and micronutrient availability and more than a 50 % rise in soil biological populations. Carbon (CO2)-sequestration was also higher under ZT (379.5 kg C/ha/year), whereas CT was associated with carbon depletion, soil erosion, and poor soil health. Sprinkler irrigation complemented ZT by improving water retention and reducing erosion losses (2.7 t/ha/year under ZT vs. 6.4 t/ha/year under CT with conventional irrigation). In addition, micronutrient application (Mo-seed treatment + B-basal) enhanced biological activity, rhizobium population (84.9 x 10(4) CFU/g) and earthworm populations, thereby enhancing nutrient cycling and soil functioning. Integrated practices of ZT, efficient irrigation, and micronutrient application improve soil health, CO2-sequestration, and erosion control in riverine agro-ecosystems. These methods enhance soil resilience and offer a scalable solution for flood-prone, ecologically vulnerable regions, supporting both local sustainability goals and global climate adaptation.
Global declines in pollinator populations have shifted research focus toward non-bee pollinators, especially hover flies (Diptera: Syrphidae), which provide dual ecosystem services as adult pollinators and larval biocontrol agents. Despite their ecological significance, hover fly diversity and associated plant interactions had remained undocumented in the coastal agricultural and horticultural landscapes of Karaikal, Union Territory of Puducherry, India. This study aimed to assess the species richness and the temporal dynamics of hover flies at the Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru College of Agriculture and Research Institute between October 2024 - June 2025. The investigation recorded a total of 10 hover fly species in the agricultural ecosystem and 9 in the horticultural ecosystem, with interactions involving 15 different flowering plant species. The results revealed higher species diversity (1.07), evenness (0.61) and dominance (0.77) within the horticultural ecosystem. Furthermore, plant-pollinator network analysis showed higher nestedness (29.36), connectance (0.29) and linkage diversity (3.73) in the horticultural ecosystem when compared to the agricultural ecosystem. The Principal Coordinates Analysis demonstrated that the hover fly assemblage in the agricultural ecosystem was influenced by crop phenology, whereas assemblages in the horticultural ecosystem were driven by floral resource pulses. Most of the hover flies showed a strong negative correlation with maximum and minimum temperatures, while showing a positive correlation with relative humidity and sunshine hours. These findings highlight the ecological importance of weed flowers in supporting the hover fly community. The study concludes that maintaining high floral diversity is essential for the conservation of hover fly populations and ensures the delivery of sustainable pollination services.
Rapid population growth has put unprecedented strain on global agricultural systems, intensifying concerns over food availability, environmental integrity and sustainable resource use. In order to meet the growing demand, agricultural production has expanded substantially, leading to a parallel increase in agricultural wastes (AWs), including crop residues, livestock manure, agro-industrial processing by-products, and aquaculture residues. Globally, agriculture generates nearly 998 million tonnes of waste annually, much of which remains underutilized or improperly managed. Such mismanagement contributes to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, soil and water degradation, and elevated risks to human and ecosystem health. The adoption of circular economy principles provides a coherent framework for redefining AWs as secondary resources rather than environmental liabilities. Recent advances in biological, biochemical, and thermochemical technologies have enabled the efficient transformation of agricultural residues into bioenergy, organic fertilizers, bioplastics, bio-based construction materials, enzymes, and other high-value products. These approaches improve material efficiency, reduce reliance on fossil-derived inputs, and support climate change mitigation with the assist of artificial intelligence (AI). Beyond environmental gains, sustainable valorization of AWs offers substantial socioeconomic benefits by enhancing farm income, generating rural employment opportunities. This review synthesizes recent progress in agricultural waste management (AWM) and valorization strategies, emphasizing technological innovations, sustainability performance, and economic importance. It highlights the essential role of AW valorization in advancing the United Nations sustainable development goals and fostering sustainability.
Climate change is increasing the frequency, intensity, and concurrence of abiotic stresses, exposing crops to complex stress combinations that cannot be predicted from single-stress responses. Conventional interventions, including irrigation, agrochemical inputs, breeding, and transgenic technologies, remain constrained by resource requirements, regulatory barriers, and inconsistent field performance. Stress priming has emerged as a physiologically grounded, low-input strategy in which prior exposure to a sub-lethal stimulus establishes a primed state that can enable faster or stronger responses upon subsequent stress and, in some cases, establish stress memory. This review integrates current understanding of the physiological, molecular, and systems-level mechanisms underpinning the primed state across four mechanistic priming modalities: chemical, microbial, physical, and redox-/nanotechnology-based, while considering seed priming as a major application platform. The physiological basis of priming is examined as an integrated network encompassing antioxidant regulation, osmotic adjustment, photosynthetic protection, stomatal and root plasticity, and membrane stability. At the molecular level, we evaluate how chromatin modifications, DNA methylation, non-coding RNAs, transcription factor pre-positioning, hormonal crosstalk, and proteostasis cooperate to establish, maintain, and retrieve stress memory, with sustained H3K4me3 representing the most extensively validated chromatin-associated marker. Multi-omics studies further suggest that diverse priming treatments converge on recurring regulatory modules centred on ABA signalling, HSF and DREB transcription factors, and phenylpropanoid metabolism, suggesting a potential mechanistic basis for cross-tolerance while remaining subject to species-, genotype-, and developmental-stage-dependent reconfiguration. We delineate stress-specific priming, cross-priming, and true recallable stress memory as mechanistically distinct outcomes and integrate these into a unified priming-to-memory framework. Finally, we outline the principal translational barriers to field deployment and identify cell-type-resolved functional validation, long-term field evaluation, and protocol standardization as priorities for advancing priming as a climate-resilient strategy for sustainable crop improvement.
