The risks of rapidly growing human population, unsustainable environmental destruction, consequent food scarcity and destabilization of the global geopolitics were early recognized by Prof. Lester R. Brown, an environmentalist and enthusiast raising voice for future generations and emphasizing the costs, consequences and realities of our modern lifestyle. This short review was written to honour his lifelong work and determination to a great cause, discussing recent achievements of agricultural microbiology and how they may contribute to the goal of sustainable agricultural development.
Ruminant livestock are responsible for non-CO2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, namely methane from enteric fermentation and nitrous oxide, as indirect emissions from manure management. Reduction measures of GHG must be taken by all sectors to reach the European greenhouse gas production targets of 55% of net reduction by 2030 and of neutrality by 2050 (European green deal, Paris agreement). It has to be highlighted that livestock partly exploit resources, which are not in competition with humans, and enteric methane is a physiological need of ruminants; therefore, its production can be reduced but not eliminated. Despite this evidence, in the last decades, several feeding strategies have been proposed, which overall are pointing toward the improvement of animal efficiency and the reduction of their methane emission. Among these approaches, good practices in grazing management, forage harvesting and preservation strategies, together with the inclusion of concentrate of dietary fats, might help in mitigating the environmental impact of ruminants. Furthermore, several in vitro studies have reported the potential of including various feed additive types, either as pure or as a mixture, but confirmations in vivo are required.
Lettuce (Lactuca sativa) is an annual autogamous diploid plant belonging to Asteraceae and amongst the top ten most profitable crops worldwide. Nevertheless, one of the major problems for extensive lettuce cultivation is represented by fertiliser exploitation in soil and extra soil system. In this context, arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi could help reduce the impact of fertilisers, particularly phosphorus (P), improving plant nutrition and contributing to growing healthier plants. In our work, we collected lettuces (cv. Salinas) inoculated with the AM fungus Funneliformis mossae and grown in soilless culture with a P-deficient nutrient solution. Gene expression profile of leaves was analysed. Overall, 1,458 genes were differentially regulated by mycorrhizal symbiosis. Interestingly, the pattern of differentially expressed genes showed regulation of photosynthesis and starch sucrose metabolism. These data are coherent with biochemical and physiological results recently reported in the literature and suggest the possible exploitation of AM symbionts for lettuce soilless cultivation with beneficial effects on plant growth.
Plant factory with artificial lights (PFALs) could be useful to produce more food of high quality and reduce the use of agrochemical and transportation costs.PFALs is a complete controlled indoor farming system, mainly dedicated to the production of edible plants with small size and a short cultivation, that allows to provide a reliable production of high-quality vegetables.The development of PFALs was possible thanks to the steady price decline of Light Emitting Diode (LED) lights along with the rapid improvement of their photon efficacy.In typical PFALs with LED lights, electricity, labour, and depreciation are the three major components of the production costs.The energy-efficiency must be improved to an ecologically friendly development of PFALs.The reduction of energy consumption and the increase in production and commercial value can be achieved by improving the digital control of the cultivation and by applying models to predict both crop growth and development.
Pheromone-based mating disruption (MD) is an important strategy for managing a number of pests of agricultural importance, including key insects of grapevine. MD relies on synthetic pheromone dispensers which, when placed in the agroecosystem, delay and/or reduce the mating activity of the target pest. Through the years, the MD strategy has evolved by developing new dispensers. Earlier MD programs mainly relied on passive-release dispensers which need to be applied at 250-500 units per hectare. Today, active release dispensers are available, which can be applied at 2-4 units per hectare. These devices protect the pheromone blend from atmospheric agents, allow a reduction in installation labour costs for dispenser deployment, and optimize the pheromone release, thanks to the programmability of spraying according to the flight pattern and biology of the target pest. This contribution outlines the field efficacy of the newly developed experimental aerosol dispensers MISTER (R) L, evaluating their performances at different densities (i.e., 2, 3 and 4 units/ha) in comparison with untreated controls (i.e., vineyards where no target-specific control measures were applied) and the grower's standard (i.e., commercial passive-release MD devices Isonet((R)) L TT).
