Sugarcane is a major contributor to bioenergy production in India and its share is expected to rise further. However, the productivity of sugarcane is not only low, but it is also water-energy-carbon extensive. To work out energy and emission-centric strategies, effects of conservation agriculture-based tillage, surface trash retention, and nutrient management were monitored in drip irrigated sugarcane experiment (2016-22). Six treatments imposed on the plant crop consisted of: three tillage levels viz., CT (conventional tillage i.e. sub-soiling plus cultivating twice followed by rotovator), RT1 (reduced tillage cultivating twice) and RT2 (reduced tillage single cultivation) before preparing ridges for planting in main-plots and two trash management practices viz., M (trash mulching) and NM (non-mulching) in subplots. RT2 and RT1 rather increased plant crop productivity by 13.3 % and 8.2 % over CT, while the increase with M was 5.3, 7.9, and 10.1 %, respectively under CT, RT1 and RT2. The sub-sub plots for the following four ratoon crops included three modes of nutrient management as varied using both a multi-functional (stubble shaving, off-barring, root pruning and band placement of fertilisers) ratoon drill (MRD) for basal dose and fertigation with drippers during crop growth. These consisted of: N1 (25 % recommended fertilisers, RDF as basal and rest through fertigation); N2 (50 % with MRD and 50 % with fertigation) and N3 (75 % with MRD and 25 % with fertigation). RT2+ M + N2 enhanced tillers, cane weight, size matrices, juice quality and produced 45.4% higher cane yield of ratoon crops compared with CT + NM + N1 (farmers practice). This reduced the yield gap from 38 to 8 % between plant and ratoon crops via its superior water productivity (16.4 kg m-3), partial factor productivity (518.1 kg N kg-1), and reduced water footprint (54.0 l kg-1). The energy consumption during ratoon crops (40.4-50.5 GJ ha-1) was considerably lesser than the plant crop (74.6-87.7 GJ ha-1). Similarly, GHG emissions monitored were 6522-7487 and 9001-10421 kg CO2-eq ha-1 during ratoon and plant crop, respectively. Reduced tillage in ratoons improved energy use efficiency (33.7-56.3 %), net energy (26.3-46.7 %) and reduced GHGs emissions by 3.6-12.9 % compared to CT + NM + N1. This enhanced carbon sequestration by 65.5-73.1 % and reduced carbon footprint by 72-88 %. Thus, integrating reduced tillage, trash retention and appropriate fertigation practices has a potential to improve sugarcane productivity vis-a-vis profitability, and sustain soil and environmental quality in sugarcane production systems, as prevalent in water scarcities regions.

As climate change intensifies water scarcity, sustainable strategies are essential for vegetable production under water-limited conditions. This study evaluates the potential of grafted eggplant onto wild rootstocks under deficit irrigation (DI) to enhance growth, yield, and water productivity (WP). A two-year field experiment in semi-arid regions of India investigated the effects of three DI levels (100, 80, and 60

Custard apple (Annona squamosa L.) is commercially grown for its sweetness, delicacy, and nutraceutical benefits across the world. Fruit must be harvested from trees before the climacteric stage begins for stabilizing the maturation process and perishability, which otherwise restricts longer shelf-life. Therefore, maturity-based grading or classifying custard apple fruit in accordance with their ripening is required for commercial marketing and industrial storage purposes. This is a crucial task that agriculturists and the food processing industries must have to perform manually, which is ineffective and susceptible to human errors. In this research, we have proposed an image processing-based maturity stages detection prototype device for fruit classification of custard apple (Cv. Balanagar) based on changes in their physical, chemical and imaging features (skin color of fruit areoles). The newly developed handheld device comprises of a Raspberry Pi board, camera module, LCD touch screen, and image processing algorithms to identify five essential maturity stages i.e. 0 %, 25 %, 50 %, 75 % and 100 % areoles opening of custard apple. The images were pre-processed and segmented, after which imaging aspects of custard apple fruit including relative R, G and B components were extracted and their relationship with chemical properties such as TSS was established. For classification of captured images, K-means clustering and SVM algorithms were performed on Raspberry Pi Platform with model training and classifier codes in Python (3.9.6) to get desired results. The statistical analysis revealed a substantial difference between the maturity stages in terms of R, G and TSS. Overall, 100 % accuracy was accomplished with respect to the grading of custard apple fruit at varied maturity. This could be a low-cost device useful for farm-level custard apple fruit classification, minimising economic losses caused by faulty supply entering the marketing chain. With slight modifications in algorithms, this device could also be used to assess the maturity of other fruit crops. It could be also an alternative to several expensive approaches being used for automating the maturity grading process that is not feasible, particularly for farmers working in field conditions.

Traditional rice and wheat cropping system (RWCS) of the western Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) is not only less productive, but also unsustainable owing to its elevated energy demands and environmental carbon footprint. Transition towards the long-term adoption of conservation agriculture (CA) technologies can possibility overcomes these constraints and making it a crucial component of modern farming systems. Therefore, the effects of conservation tillage and residue retention on wheat cultivation were evaluated from 2015–2016 to 2019–2020 under RWCS on CA fields maintained for twenty one years. Five tillage treatments viz., zero tillage without residue retention (ZT-R), zero tillage with residue retention (ZT+R), permanent bed planting without residue retention (PBP-R), rotary tillage without residue retention (RT-R) and conventional tillage without residue retention (CT-R) were evaluated in four times replicated randomised complete block design. The CT-R recorded 28

The predicted rise in global surface and air temperatures, and resulting heat episodes, is a significant challenge for sustaining crop yield and quality in the coming decades. Exposure to heat stress during reproductive and grain-filling stages of crops disrupts source-sink activities and induces undesirable biochemical changes in seeds. While the adverse effects of heat stress on crop production are well-known, the compositional changes in seeds due to heat stress have not received equal attention. Research on the effects of heat stress on seed quality attributes is crucial, as many quality traits that are associated with plant thermotolerance and display good heritability could be exploited to devise breeding strategies to improve crop thermotolerance. Mitigating the negative consequences of heat stress on crop quality via conventional breeding methods or contemporary molecular approaches presents a formidable challenge due to the location and genotype-specific crop responses. Furthermore, the research efforts are impeded by inadequate understanding of the interactions between genotypes and environmental factors. This review explores heat stress mediated alterations in source-sink activities and associated physio-biochemical processes of crops. It presents a comprehensive description of the impact of heat stress on seed quality attributes, including seed carbohydrates, proteins, oils, phytochemicals, vitamins, and dietary fibers, with more emphasis on agronomically important cereal crops like wheat, rice, and maize. Based on the literature review, we conclude by outlining existing research gaps, challenges, and research needs to lessen the negative effects of heat stress on seed quality attributes of nutritional importance.

Chilli is a significant vegetable cum spice crop having broader applications in the food, phytogenic feed,cosmeceutical and pharmaceutical industries. To meet the demand, there is a need to develop F1 hybrids withtolerance/ resistance to major threatening diseases and higher yields. The present investigation was conductedto study the diversity of morphometric, fruit quality and yield traits and their reaction to chilli leaf curl diseaseamong thirteen CGMS-based high-yielding F1 hybrids. The hybrids Arka Nihira, Arka Yashasvi, H-25, H-26, andArka Tanvi excelled for most of the traits contributing to yield enhancement. The yield increment potential inthese hybrids is attributed to high morphometric and fruit biometric. In relation to the local check (HPH-3351),hybrid Arka Nihira exhibited enhanced green fruit yield by about sixty-two per cent. The cluster plot partitionedthese hybrids into four primary groups, revealing genetic similarities and differences among the hybrids. Further,a character association study indicates that traits such as days to 50 per cent flowering, plant spread, fruitgirth, and the number of fruits per plant can be leveraged as indirect selection indices for green fruit yield whileselecting a commercial hybrid cultivar in chilli breeding programs. The hybrids, Arka Nihira and Arka Tanvi, inparticular, have the potential to be commercial cultivars in terms of yield, agronomic characteristics, and leafcurl disease tolerance in shallow basaltic soils of the Deccan plateau of Indi

Exogenous growth regulators (GRs) play a crucial role in alleviating water stress and sustaining crop yields in water-stressed areas. However, their effects on onions post-harvest quality, particularly post-monsoon onion—often preferred for long-term storage—were never studied. Therefore, this led us to investigate the interaction between water stress and GRs on the physiochemical and functional quality attributes of onions during long-term storage (9 months, at 25 ± 1 °C and 65 ± 5% RH). Onion crop was raised under four water stress levels i.e., 1.00–0.85, 0.84–0.70, 0.69–0.40, and 0.39–0.10 IW: CPE, designated as no, low, medium, and severe water stress, respectively, using a line source sprinkler system (LSS). GR treatments include potassium nitrate (PN, 15 g L−1), sodium benzoate (SB, 100 mg L−1), thio-urea (TU, 450 ppm), and gibberellic acid (GA, 25 ppm). Results reveal that the significant temporal changes in the dry matter, rehydration ratio, total soluble sugar (TSS), protein, and total phenolics content (TP) of the onion bulbs during storage, indicate the cumulative impact of the treatments on overall physicochemical status. Water stress increased onion biochemical attributes, especially pyruvic acid content, superoxide dismutase (SOD), and peroxidase (POD) activity. Storage quality of onions progressively decreased with the increase in storage period. Stressed onions, especially those produced under severe water stress condition, showed high weight losses, presenting poor keeping quality. However, application of GRs, especially SB, TU, and PN, reduced bulb weight losses together with maintaining slightly better bulb physicochemical properties, thereby improving the overall storage quality, particularly with a moderate level of water stress (0.69–0.40 IW:CPE). The exogenous application of GRs with moderate water stress is suggested as a key strategy in improving the keeping quality of onion bulbs and ensuring its availability during the lean season.

Rainfall induced hypoxia with transient waterlogging is a major constraint limiting the productivity and quality of monsoon season onion (Allium cepa L.). Therefore, the effects of water stagnation at different growth stages and possibilities of its alleviation with plant growth regulators (PGRs) namely; potassium nitrate (PN, 20 g L-1), thio-urea (TU, 600 mg L-1), salicylic acid (SA, 2.07 mg L-1), sodium benzoate (SB, 200 mg L-1) were evaluated during 2018-20. Bulb yield loss ranged between 7 and 60 per cent. Bulb initiation stage was the most sensitive (20 %) to waterlogging followed by vegetative growth (15 %) and bulb development (7 %). Effects became additive when imposed at vegetative growth and bulb initiation (44 %), vegetative growth and bulb development (40 %), bulb initiation and bulb development (35%) and all the three stages (60 %). Spraying PGRs improved marketable bulb yields by 10.4-23.3 %, water productivity from 4.0 to 4.4-4.9 kg m- 3 and helped to mitigate waterlogging stress through maintenance higher leaf water contents, greenness and plant vigour, lower canopy temperatures and modulating stomatal openings. Especially the crop was more receptive to PN and TU sprays at the most sensitive bulb initiation stage. Waterlogging also impacted the quality traits like bulb weight, geometric mean diameter, sphericity and firmness of bulbs but these got largely recovered with PGRs. PGRs exhibited considerably higher rehydration ratio (RR), pH, total soluble solids (TSS), protein contents, accumulation of total phenols and pyruvic acid. Thus, spraying PGRs like PN and TU emerged as a viable option to off-shoot the impacts of transient waterlogging.

Abiotic stresses including drought and salinity have become frontier areas in agricultural research, particularly due to their damaging potential to threaten global food security in near future. Constantly increasing soil salinity has severely damaged the global production of staple food crops. The ever-increasing world population is critically strained already due to the shrinkage of existing agricultural production system. Looking at the constraints, rigorous initiatives have been taken to yield several strategies to utilize conventional and modern approaches for increasing stress tolerance and/or mitigating the stress-induced ill-effects on crop to potentially improve the productivity. Recent literature signifies prominent attempts towards devising new strategies aiming at salinity and drought smart crop cultivation. The use of halophytes and halophyte-associated microbes is among the highly promising approach from both the perspectives of salinity stress mitigation, and saline soil reclamation in the long term. The cutting-edge omics tools have provided deeper insights into the understanding of the interactions of halophytes, associated microbiomes and the soil rhizosphere habitat. We have described ample of mechanism-based evidences to establish the role of halophytic plants and associated microbial communities in establishing a strong base for their application in bio-saline agriculture.

Dragon fruit is getting wider popularity among the farmers and researchers as well. Due to high value benefits many farmers are cultivating this crop. This increasing demand of these fruit necessitates more advanced research on its better establishment. By keeping this in consideration, an investigation was taken to evaluate planted saplings under abiotic stresses for success and standardizing the growing conditions and length of cuttings. The results indicated that, the data on biochemical parameters at 50 days after first shoot initiation, the maximum shoot moisture content (79.33%) and total chlorophyll content (6.90 mg g-1) was recorded in shade net condition, whereas highest protein content (0.25 mg g-1), phenol content (44.47 mg g-1), proline content (49.92  g-1) and total sugars (5.86%) were recorded in the open field condition. However, the 35 cm length of cuttings exhibited highest total chlorophyll content (6.13 mg g-1) and total sugar content (5.88%), whereas maximum protein content (0.25 mg g-1), total phenol content (39.70 mg g-1) and proline content (46.51 g-1) was recorded in 45 cm length of cuttings. Therefore, treatment combination shade net condition with 35cm length of cuttings has reduced the abiotic stress as compared to other treatments at 50 days intervals after first shoot initiation so, shade net condition with 35 cm length of cuttings performed better under abiotic stresses.

Microbes enhance crop resilience to abiotic stresses, aiding agricultural sustainability amid rising global land salinity. While microbes have proven effective via seed priming, soil amendments, and foliar sprays in diverse crops, their mechanisms remain less explored. This study explores the utilization of ACC deaminase-producing Nocardioides sp. to enhance wheat growth in saline environments and the molecular mechanisms underlying Nocardioides sp.-mediated salinity tolerance in wheat. The Nocardioides sp. inoculated seeds were grown under four salinity regimes viz., 0 dS m-1, 5 dS m-1, 10 dS m-1, and 15 dS m-1, and vegetative growth parameters including shoot-root length, germination percentage, seedling vigor index, total biomass, and shoot-root ratio were recorded. The Nocardioides inoculated wheat plants performed well under saline conditions compared to uninoculated plants and exhibited lower shoot:root (S:R) ratio (1.52 ± 0.14 for treated plants against 1.84 ± 0.08 for untreated plants) at salinity level of 15 dS m-1 and also showed improved biomass at 5 dS m-1 and 10 dS m-1. Furthermore, the inoculated plants also exhibited higher protein content viz., 22.13 mg g-1, 22.10 mg g-1, 22.63 mg g-1, and 23.62 mg g-1 fresh weight, respectively, at 0 dS m-1, 5 dS m-1, 10 dS m-1, and 15 dS m-1. The mechanisms were studied in terms of catalase, peroxidase, superoxide dismutase, and ascorbate peroxidase activity, free radical scavenging potential, in-situ localization of H2O2 and superoxide ions, and DNA damage. The inoculated seedlings maintained higher enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidant potential, which corroborated with reduced H2O2 and superoxide localization within the tissue. The gene expression profiles of 18 stress-related genes involving abscisic acid signaling, salt overly sensitive (SOS response), ion transporters, stress-related transcription factors, and antioxidant enzymes were also analyzed. Higher levels of stress-responsive gene transcripts, for instance, TaABARE (~+7- and +10-fold at 10 dS m-1 and 15 dS m-1); TaHAk1 and hkt1 (~+4- and +8-fold at 15 dS m-1); antioxidant enzymes CAT, MnSOD, POD, APX, GPX, and GR (~+4, +3, +5, +4, +9, and +8 folds and), indicated actively elevated combat mechanisms in inoculated seedlings. Our findings emphasize Nocardioides sp.-mediated wheat salinity tolerance via ABA-dependent cascade and salt-responsive ion transport system. This urges additional study of methylotrophic microbes to enhance crop abiotic stress resilience.

Agricultural crops especially fruit trees are constrained by edaphic stresses in shallow soils with low water retention and poor fertility. Therefore, interventions of shifting to trench planting for better root anchorage and replacing the filling soil were evaluated for 8 years in dragon fruit (Hylocereus undatus) cultivated in Deccan Plateau of peninsular India. When averaged for last 5-years, 44 % higher fruit yield (18.2 +/- 1.0 Mg ha(-1)) was harvested from trees planted in trenches filled with 1:1 mixture (T-mixed) of native soil (loamy sand with 26.7 % stones (>2mm), field capacity, FC 0.20 cm(3) cm(-3); organic carbon, OC 0.17 %; Av-N 54.6 kg ha(-1)) and a black soil (clay 54.4 %; FC 0.42 cm(3) cm(-3); OC 0.70 %; Av-N 157.1 kg ha(-1)) than the recommended pit planting (12.4 +/- 1.2 Mg ha(-1)). Improvements in fruit yields with trenches filled with black (T-black) and native (T-native) soil were 32 and 13 %, respectively. Yield losses (total- marketable yield) were reduced by 40, 20 and 18 % over pit method with T-mixed, T-black and T-native soil, respectively. Marketable quality attributes like fruit weight, fruit size metrics and pulp/peel content were further improved under T-mixed soil. Accumulation of total soluble solids (TSS), sugar content, phenolic and flavonoid compounds were higher in fruits from T-native soil. During storage, fruits from T-native soil and pit planting exhibited minimum physiological weight loss and retained more firmness, TSS, sugars, titratable acidity, phenolic-flavonoids contents, FARP and DPPH activities. T-mixed soil provided better hydrozone and nutrients for resilience of fruit plants while protecting from aeration problems envisaged in poorly drained black soils. With B:C ratio (1.85) and lower payback period (4-years), T-mixed soil showed superior economic viability. Therefore, soil management module of planting in trenches filled-in with mixture of native and black soils can be recommended to boost productivity of fruits from shallow soils under water scarce degraded regions without penalising agro-ecosystem. (c) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Sequestration of carbon (C) in arable cropping systems is considered one of the potential climate change mitigation strategies. In this context, assessing the potential of sugarcane cropping systems should be a priority, as it leaves substantial amounts of recyclable residues essential for maintaining soil organic carbon (SOC), improving soil health, and strengthening overall resources. We evaluated the impacts of residue retention and nutrient management practices on SOC and its pools, storage, soil biology, and yield in a multi-ratooning sugarcane system. A field experiment was conducted in the split-plot design with residue burning (RB) and residue retention (RR) as the main plot treatments and three nutrient management practices, that is, 25% of the recommended dose of fertilizers (RDF, i.e., 300:150:150 kg of N, P2O5, and K2O kg ha−1, respectively) as basal + 75% through fertigation (N1); 50% of RDF as basal + 50% through fertigation (N2); and 75% of RDF as basal + 25% through fertigation (N3) as subplot treatments in ratoon sugarcane. Soil samples were collected initially and after 6 years of multi-ratooning (one plant and four ratoon crops) from a soil depth of 0–30 cm. The results indicated that RR plots had 21% higher total SOC with 42, 47, 17, and 13% higher very labile, labile, less labile, and non-labile C pools, respectively, than RB plots (P < 0.05). RR also had a higher lability and recalcitrant index than RB. Of the total SOC stock, the contribution of passive pools was higher (72–75%) than active pools. Significantly higher dehydrogenase activity (DHA) (86%), alkaline phosphatase activity (APA) (16%), and ß-glucosidase activity (BGA) (22%) were observed in RR plots as compared to RB plots, whereas for nutrient management practices, it followed the order of N2 > N3> N1. Microbial counts also followed the same trend as that of enzyme activities. Residue retention practices reported higher C sequestration (0.68 Mg C ha−1 yr−1), carbon retention efficiency (37%), and yield (38%) with a potential to reduce GHG emissions by 2.72 Mg CO2 ha−1 yr−1 as compared to traditional practices. Residue retention and 50–75% RDF as basal is recommended for higher soil C retention and soil biology for sustained sugarcane productivity.

Water scarcity severely impacts agricultural productivity and quality in arid and semi-arid regions. Specific elicitors like plant growth regulators (PGRs) and bio-stimulants as well as deficit irrigation (DI) practices have been put forward to alleviate the effect of resultant water stress and enhance crop productivity. Hence, a field experiment was conducted for two years (2020-2022) to elucidate the effects of PGRs and bio-stimulants of organic and chemical origins under variable deficit irrigation levels on okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L.), a major crop grown in the semi-arid region of peninsular India. Treatments included combinations of the foliar sprays with PGRs i.e. irradiated chitosan (IC, 5 ml L-1), sea weed extracts (SWE, 5 ml L-1), thio-urea (TU, 600 ppm), salicylic acid (SA, 20 mu M), bacterial biopolymer (BP, 5 ml L-1) along with control (no PGR) and DI levels i.e. equalling 100 %, 75 %, 50 % and 25 % of the crop evapotranspiration (ETc). Irrigation levels were maintained using line source sprinkler (LSS) system. Reductions in pod yield (PY) and above ground biomass (AGB) ranged between 12 and 83 and 20-79 % with DI of 0.75-0.25 ETc. Exogenous foliar application of PGRs improved plant growth, physiological traits and thereby increased PY by 6.1-19.2 %. Beneficial role of PGRs for mitigating water stress was associated with cooler canopy temperatures, maintenance of higher leaf relative water content by modulating stomatal conductance, enhanced plant vigour and photosynthetically active surface. The lower values of yield response factors viz., KSWE <= 1 with SWE further indicated increased tolerance of okra to water stress. The maximum crop water productivity (CWP) was 3.43-3.79 kg m-3 with PGRs as compared with 3.32 kg m-3 without PGR. Especially PGRs of organic origin (SWE and IC) were more effective under medium to severe water stress conditions. The response to BP, bio-stimulant of bacterial origin was almost at par with SA. DI reduced physical quality attributes such as mean pod weight and pod length but firmness and seed/peel ratio got improved; the maximum being with 75 % ETc. Improved rehydration quality and higher accumulation of total soluble solids, dry matter, protein, total phenolics, and flavonoids that potentially affect enzymatic activity were monitored with PGRs. It is concluded that the exogenous foliar application of PGRs from organic origins such as SWE and IC in combination with low to moderate DI (50-75 % ETc) is optimal for improving production and post-harvest quality of okra grown in water-scarce areas of peninsular India.

The cultivation of nutritionally and economically important crops like tomato are often threatened by dry spells due to drought as these crops largely depend on an assured water supply. The magnitude and intensity of drought is predicted to intensify under climate change scenarios, particularly in semi-arid regions, where water is already a scarce resource. Hence, it is imperative to devise strategies to mitigate the adverse effects of drought on tomato through improvement in the plant’s efficiency to utilise the moisture in the growth medium. Since the root is the entry point for water, its intrinsic structure and functions play a crucial role in maintaining the soil–water–plant continuum during moisture deficit at the rhizosphere. Grafting offers a great opportunity to replace the root system of the cultivated tomato plants with that of wild species and hence provide a rapid solution to modulate root system architecture in contrast to the time-consuming conventional breeding approach. However, the success in developing the best graft combination of cultivated tomato and rootstock depends on the source of rootstock and selection methods. In this study, we used a high throughput phenomics facility to assess the efficiency of tomato, grafted on the rootstocks of different genetic backgrounds, at different levels of moisture in the soil. Rootstocks included tomato cultivars and the hybrids, derived from the crosses involving wild relatives, as donor parents. Among the rootstocks, an interspecific (Solanum lycopersicum × S. pennellii) derivative RF4A was highly efficient in terms of productive use of water. The RF4A rootstock-grafted plants were more conservative in water use with higher plant water status through relatively better stomatal regulation and hence were more efficient in generating greater biomass under water stress conditions. These plants could maintain a higher level of PSII efficiency, signifying better photosynthetic efficiency even under water stress. The distinct response of interspecific rootstock, RF4A, to water stress can be ascribed to the effective root system acquired from a wild parent (S. pennellii), and hence efficient water uptake. Overall, we demonstrated the efficient use of a phenomics platform and developed a protocol to identify promising rootstock–scion combinations of tomato for optimization of water use.

Protected cultivation is gaining momentum in (semi) arid regions to ameliorate the adverse environmental impacts on vegetable crops, besides ensuring high resource use efficiency in resource-limiting environments. Among the less techno-intensive protected cultivation structures, naturally ventilated polyhouses (NVP), insect-proof net houses (IPN) and shade net houses (SNH) are commercial structures in India. With the aim to find the best-protected structure, together with optimum irrigation level, for high yield and water productivity of the tomato crop, the most popular crop in hot arid regions, we evaluated tomato performance in low-tech protected structures (NVP, IPN and SNH) in interaction with three irrigation levels (100, 80 and 60% of crop evapotranspiration, ETc) during spring–summer of 2019 and 2020. The NVP was found superior to both the net house structures (IPN and SNH) for different performance indicators of tomatoes under investigation. The components of plant growth (leaf and stem dry mass) and fruit yield (fruit size, weight, yield), as well as fruit quality (total soluble solids, fruit dry matter and lycopene content) were higher in NVP, regardless of irrigation level. The yield as well as water productivity were significantly higher in NVP at 100% ETc. However, there was no statistical variation for water productivity between NVP and IPN. Microclimate parameters (temperature, relative humidity and photosynthetic active radiation) were markedly more congenial for tomato cultivation in NVP followed by IPN in relation to SNH. Consequently, plants’ physiological functioning with higher leaf relative water content (RWC) and lower leaf water potential concomitantly with better photosynthetic efficiency (chlorophyll fluorescence, Fv/Fm), was in NVP and IPN. Most growth and yield attributes were depressed with the decrease in water application rates; hence, deficit irrigation in these low-tech protected structures is not feasible. For tomato cultivation in resource-scarce arid regions, the combination of the normal rate of irrigation (100% ETc) and NVP was optimal for gaining high yield as well as water productivity as compared to net houses.

Canopy reflectance based spectral indices help in effective irrigation scheduling of wheat for optimization of yield in water-scarce regions. A field experiment for two consecutive years (2013 to 2015) was conducted to evaluate the responses of wheat crop to exogenous application of plant bio-regulators (PBRs) in the water-scarce Deccan region of India (Baramati, Pune, Maharashtra). We predicted grain and biomass yields of wheat using water stress-sensitive spectral indices under varied water regimes. The water regimes were seven levels of irrigation water (equaling to 1.00, 0.85, 0.70, 0.55, 0.40, 0.25 and 0.10 times of cumulative open pan evaporation, CPE) and applied using a line-source sprinkler system). There were five PBRs, viz. thiourea, salicylic acid, potassium nitrate, gibberellin and ortho−silicic, with concentration 10 mM, 10 μM, 15 g L−1, 25 ppm and 8 ppm, respectively, applied at various growth stages, namely crown root initiation, flag leaf and seed milking stages. Water stress indices were computed from spectral reflectance pattern recorded at different crop growth stages using ASD FieldSpec-4 Spectroradiometer (350–2500 nm). The PBRs significantly influenced the canopy reflectance pattern and maintained superior values of water stress indices over the control (without PBRs) by stabilizing leaf pigments and water contents, controlling the stomatal opening and better water use. Among the five PBRs, thiourea and salicylic acid mitigated water stress better and improved overall grain yield (4.6–17.5%) and total biomass (3.6–15.3%). There was no significant (p < 0.05) variation in both yields (grains and biomass) up to IW: CPE 0.70, indicating that irrigation scheduling at 0.70 IW: CPE could be a better option rather than full irrigation in water-scarce areas. At flowering and milking stages, all spectral indices were correlated significantly with the wheat yields. Thus, these stages could be considered as more water-sensitive stages during entire wheat growth period. Regression models based on WI and NWI-2 accounted for 92% and 78% variation in the observed yields for grain and biomass, respectively, with minimum root-mean square error. Hence, to predict the grain and biomass yields of wheat, regression models based on WI and NWI-2 at milking stage can be used successfully.

Climate change-induced environmental stresses and limited agricultural land demanding intensification of sustainable agriculture over degraded land via crop diversification strategies. Dragon fruit is one of the potential options and popularising in resource-poor degraded lands apart from its several nutraceutical advantages. Hence, understanding of facts related to its consumer acceptability and maintaining high quality for marketing and processing is highly essential. Therefore in this study, we have developed grading and sorting techniques for dragon fruit using machine learning algorithms (CNN, ANN, and SVM) based on a thorough review of techniques or algorithms available to detect and classify fruit quality using various features of fruits and vegetables. Working of these algorithms is based on the, shape, size, weight, color, and diseases of dragon fruits. Raspberry functionality counts the total number of fruits that are available in the fruit bucket and these are separated by their maturity level using machine learning algorithms.

Abiotic stresses like drought, extreme temperatures, poor edaphic factors, elevated CO2, floods, submergence, anoxia, disproportionate insolation, and cyclones are the major challenges limiting the world's agricultural production. Among the many approaches that are attempted to mitigate the effect of abiotic stresses, the use of beneficial plant microbes and their integration in agricultural production is explored as one of the potential approaches for enhancing the tolerance of crops to abiotic stresses. The effective and rationalized use of plant microbiomes requires a comprehensive understanding of the key aspects like microbial community composition, microbial colonization, and host-microbial interactions. The past few years have seen mounting interest in the manipulation of plant-associated microbiomes employing the vertically transmitted microbiota for the generation of new phenotypes or the new plant varieties. Moreover, due to the breakthrough advancements in Next Generations Sequencing (NGS) platforms, our ability to study the plant microbiome has improved radically. Using amplicon and shotgun metagenome sequencing approaches, more and more information about the complexity of plant microbiota, insights into plant-microbiome interactions, core microbiomes have been generated. In this chapter, we discuss the current state of plant microbiome research and summarize the salient research finding which may form the basis for effective agricultural microbiome manipulations and management strategies for sustainability of food production.