Crop Quality Traits Research Articles

ProTformer: Transformer-based model for superior prediction of protein content in lablab bean (Lablab purpureus L.) using Near-Infrared Reflectance spectroscopy

Lablab bean (Lablab purpureus L.), known for its higher protein content provides a promising alternative to reduce reliance on animal-based proteins and support sustainable agriculture. Nowadays, traditional methods for nutritional profiling have been outperformed by Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) integrated with Near-Infrared Reflectance Spectroscopy (NIRS). However, an advanced technique called Transformers, despite their potential, remains underexplored for prediction of key quality traits of crops. Thus, in the present study, we aimed to predict lablab bean protein content using a Transformer-based model (termed ProTformer) coupled with NIRS. The Dumas combustion method was used to determine protein content from 112 lablab bean genotypes. The performance of this model was compared with 1D CNN and Modified Partial Least Squares (MPLS)-based models. These models were evaluated using the Coefficient of Determination (RSQ), Residual Prediction Deviation (RPD), bias, and Corrected Standard Error of Prediction (SEP(C)). Our findings show that the Transformer-based model achieved the highest predictive accuracy (RSQ = 0.977, RPD = 13.92), surpassing the 1D CNN (RSQ = 0.956, RPD = 11.33) and MPLS (RSQ = 0.943, RPD = 10.53)- based models by 22.86% and 32.21% in RPD, respectively. The multi-head self-attention mechanism present in the Transformer-based model enables it to concurrently focus on different spectral regions, resulting in superior predictive performance. This study shows the potential of using Transformer-based models coupled with NIRS for nutritional profiling which could be effectively adapted for other crops for rapid screening of large germplasm available at global repositories.

Quantitative evaluation of Fusarium species and crop quality traits in wheat varieties of northeastern Poland

Quantitative evaluation of Fusarium species and crop quality traits in wheat varieties of northeastern Poland

Combined use of sensory methods for the selection of root, tuber and banana varieties acceptable to end-users.

The assessment of user acceptability in relation to crop quality traits should be a full part of breeding selection programs. Our methodology is based on a combination of sensory approaches aiming to evaluate the sensory characteristics and user acceptability of root, tuber and banana (RTB) varieties. The four-stepped approach links sensory characteristics to physicochemical properties and end-user acceptance. It starts with the development of key quality traits using qualitative approaches (surveys and ranking) and it applies a range of sensory tests such as Quantitative Descriptive Analysis with a trained panel, Check-All-That-apply, nine-point hedonic scale and Just-About-Right with consumers. Results obtained on the same samples from the consumer acceptance, sensory testing and physicochemical testing are combined to explore correlations and develop acceptability thresholds. A combined qualitative and quantitative approach involving different sensory techniques is necessary to capture sensory acceptance of products from new RTB clones. Some sensory traits can be correlated with physicochemical characteristics and could be evaluated using laboratory instruments (e.g. texture). Other traits (e.g. aroma and mealiness) are more difficult to predict, and the use of a sensory panel is still necessary. For these latter traits, more advanced physicochemical methods that could accelerate the breeding selection through high throughput phenotyping are still to be developed. © 2023 The Authors. Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

Biostimulant application of whey protein hydrolysates and potassium fertilization enhances the productivity and tuber quality of sweet potato

Utilizing biostimulants like protein hydrolysates is one of the most creative and promising approaches to improving nutritional efficiency, abiotic stress tolerance, or crop quality traits. In the present study, whey protein was hydrolysed with trypsin for 4 h at an enzyme/substrate ratio (1/300, w/w). The obtained whey protein hydrolysates (WPH) were chemically characterized, and their antioxidant activity was estimated. WPH, which was produced using trypsin for 4 hours and presented the highest antioxidant activity. Therefore, it was selected as a bio stimulant with potassium fertilization for enhancing the productivity and tuber quality of sweet potatoes. A field experiment was carried out during the two successive summer seasons, at a private vegetable farm in Faques City, Sharkia Governorate, Egypt, to study the effect of different potassium rates (50, 75, and 100 kg K2O/fad) and WPH at 0.10 and 0.20% as a foliar application compared to unsprayed plants (control). The interaction between K2O at 100 kg /fad and spraying with WPH at 0.15% increased shoot dry weight/ plant, N, P, and K uptake by shoots, yield/plant, marketable yield, and total yield/fad, as well as average tuber root weight. It was concluded that the most efficient bio-stimulating foliar spray treatment for increasing sweet potato productivity was WPH (0.20%).

Effect of Biostimulants on Leafy Vegetables (Baby Leaf Lettuce and Batavia Lettuce) Exposed to Abiotic or Biotic Stress under Two Different Growing Systems

Plant biostimulants are substances or microorganisms aimed at promoting plant growth by increasing the mineral nutrition efficiency, tolerance to environmental stress, and crop quality traits. This new category of crop inputs has been capturing the interest of both researchers and agriculture takeholders in light of the promising effects they could have on crop productivity and sustainability. This study investigated a variety of biostimulants for their effect on germination rates, plant health, chlorophyll fluorescence parameters, SPAD index, and growth of baby leaf lettuce and Batavia lettuce submitted to biotic (absence/presence of Pythium ultimum in the growing medium) or abiotic (0, 40, 80, and 120 mM NaCl L−1 concentrations and −0.5, −2, −4, and −6 kPa water potentials) stresses when grown in a greenhouse under conventional and organic cultivation. The results obtained show that lettuce response to biostimulants was influenced by the type or level of stress applied and the growing system used. The effects of the tested biostimulants varied from strongly detrimental to strongly beneficial.

Revisiting the oldest manure of India, Kunapajala: Assessment of its animal waste recycling potential as a source of plant biostimulant

India's oldest documented manure, most commonly referred to as Kunapajala, has a long history of over 1,000 years in crop cultivation. Kunapajala is primarily an in-situ decomposition technology of animal waste and can potentially provide an eco-friendly pipeline for recycling bio-waste into essential plant nutrients. This traditional animal manure, in addition, also contains dairy excreta (e.g., feces and urine), dairy products (e.g., milk and ghee), natural resources (e.g., honey), broken seeds or grains, and their non-edible by-product waste. Here, we aimed to assess the waste recycling and plant biostimulant potential of Kunapajala prepared from livestock (e.g., Black Bengal goats) or fish (e.g., Bombay duck) post-processed wastes over different decomposition periods, e.g., (0, 30, 60, and 90-days). In this study, an in-situ quantification of livestock- (lKPJ) and fish-based Kunapajala (fKPJ) reveals a dynamic landscape of essential plant primary nutrients, e.g., (0.70 > NH4-N < 3.40 g•L−1), (100.00 > P2O5 < 620.00 mg•L−1), and (175.00 > K2O < 340.00 mg•L−1), including other physico-chemical attributes of Kunapajala. Using correlation statistics, we find that the plant-available nutrient content of Kunapajala depicts a significant (p < 0.0001) transformation over decomposition along with microbial dynamics, abundance, and diversities, delineating a microbial interface to animal waste decomposition and plant growth promotion. Importantly, this study also reports the indole 3-acetic acid (IAA) content (40.00 > IAA < 135.00 mg•L−1) in Kunapajala. Furthermore, the bacterial screening based on plant growth-promoting traits and their functional analyses elucidate the mechanism of the plant biostimulant potential of Kunapajala. This assay finally reports two best-performing plant growth-promoting bacteria (e.g., Pseudomonas chlororaphis and Bacillus subtilis) by the 16S ribotyping method. In support, in-planta experiments have demonstrated, in detail, the bio-stimulative effects of Kunapajala, including these two bacterial isolates alone or in combination, on seed germination, root-shoot length, and other important agronomic, physio-biochemical traits in rice. Together, our findings establish that Kunapajala can be recommended as a source of plant biostimulant to improve crop quality traits in rice. Overall, this work highlights Kunapajala, for the first time, as a promising low-cost microbial technology that can serve a dual function of animal waste recycling and plant nutrient recovery to promote sustainable intensification in agroecosystems.

Long-Term Corn–Soybean Rotation and Soil Fertilization: Impacts on Yield and Agronomic Traits

Although crop rotations have been widely shown as an effective approach for improving yield or soil quality in the long term, the relationship between crop rotations and quality traits of crop or biochar-based fertilization is still unclear. To address this, we conducted a long-term field experiment in the Heilongjiang province of China to investigate the effects of crop rotation and biochar-based fertilizer application on the crop yield, soil parameters, crop quality, and agronomic traits in 2014–2020. The effects of rotations on crop production and soil properties were evaluated with the average yield variability during the 7 years of this study. Our results showed that the diversified corn and soybean rotations had a significant positive effect on average crop yield compared with their monocultures. The corn yield was enhanced by 0.6 Mg ha−1 (5.4%) in the corn–soybean–corn (CSC) crop sequence compared with monoculture corn. Similarly, soybean yield was enhanced by 0.21 Mg ha−1 (9.7%) in the soybean–corn–corn (SCC) crop sequence compared with monoculture soybean. However, a negative effect of crop rotations was detected on the protein content of soybean compared with the monoculture soybean, while a positive effect was detected on oil content. Additionally, no differences were detected in crop yield between biochar-based fertilization and mineral fertilization treatments, but a significant positive effect of biochar-based fertilization was observed for any crop on both protein and oil content. A significant effect of crop rotation was found on the percentage of total soil N (TN), available soil N (AN), and available soil K (AK) content. The SSS crop sequence treatment illustrated the highest TN values at 0.18%. The CCC crop sequence treatment increased AN and AK content by 9.1% and 7.8%, respectively, compared with SSS (p < 0.05). We conclude that crop rotations increase crop yield and biochar-based fertilizer application, improving crop quality traits in the long term. Thus, the addition of biochar-based fertilizer could efficiently enhance the yield and quality of crop in the rotation cropping system. The findings of this study may provide useful information for designing sustainable cropping systems based on rotations.

A fast method to evaluate in a combinatorial manner the synergistic effect of different biostimulants for promoting growth or tolerance against abiotic stress

BackgroundAccording to the most popular definition, a biostimulant is any substance or microorganism applied to plants with the aim to enhance nutrition efficiency, abiotic stress tolerance and/or crop quality traits, regardless of its nutrient content. Therefore, a biostimulant can help crops to withstand abiotic stress, while maintaining or even increasing productivity. We have previously designed a sequential system, based on two different model organisms, the baker’s yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and the plant Arabidopsis thaliana, to evaluate the potential of different natural extracts as biostimulants employing a blind-test strategy.ResultsIn this report, we further expand this concept to evaluate different biostimulants in a combinatorial approach to reveal the potential additive, synergistic or antagonistic effects of different combinations of biostimulants in order to design new formulations with enhanced effects on plant growth or tolerance to abiotic stress. The method is based on yeast assays (growth tests in solid medium, and continuous growth in liquid cultures) and plant assays (mass accumulation in hydroponic culture) to assess effects on early growth.ConclusionsWith this novel approach, we have designed new formulations and quantified the ability to enhance growth and promote biomass accumulation under normal conditions and in the presence of abiotic stresses, such as drought, salinity or cold. This method enables a fast screen of many different products in a combinatorial manner, in order to design novel formulations of natural extracts with biostimulant potential.

Extracellular Metabolites of Heterotrophic Auxenochlorella protothecoides: A New Source of Bio-Stimulants for Higher Plants.

The biodiversity of microalgal species is enormous, and their versatile metabolism produces a wide diversity of compounds that can be used in food, healthcare, and other applications. Microalgae are also a potential source of bio-stimulants that enhance nutrition efficiency, abiotic stress tolerance, and/or crop quality traits. In this study, the extracellular metabolites of Auxenochlorella protothecoides (EAp) were prepared using three different culture strategies, and their effects on plant growth were examined. Furthermore, the composition of EAp was analyzed by GC-MS. The elongation of lateral roots and the cold-tolerance of Arabidopsis thaliana and Nicotiana benthamiana were promoted by EAp. Moreover, EAp from high-cell-density fermentation stimulated the growth of the leafy vegetables Brassica rapa and Lactuca sativa at dilutions as high as 500- and 1000-fold. Three major groups of compounds were identified by GC-MS, including organic acids or organic acid esters, phenols, and saccharides. Some of these compounds have known plant–stimulating effects, while the rest requires further investigation in the future. Our study demonstrates that EAp is a potential bio-stimulant, while also providing an environmentally friendly and economical microalgae fermentation process.

Untargeted Metabolomics to Explore the Bacteria Exo-Metabolome Related to Plant Biostimulants

The control and development of plant growth promoters is a key factor for the agro-nomy industry in its economic performance. Different genera of bacteria are widely used as natural biostimulants with the aim of enhancing nutrition efficiency, abiotic stress tolerance and/or crop quality traits, regardless of their nutrients content. However, the complete exo-metabolome of the bacteria responsible for the biostimulant effect is still unknown and needs to be investigated. Three bacteria with different biostimulant effects were studied by untargeted metabolomics in order to describe the metabolites responsible for this effect. The pentose phosphate pathway, tryptophan metabolism, zeatin biosynthesis, vitamin B6 metabolism and amino acid metabolism were the highlighted pathways related to bacteria biostimulant activity. These results are related to the plant hormones biosynthesis pathway for auxins and zeatins biosynthesis. Fourteen metabolites were identified as biomarkers of the biostimulant activity. The results suggest a greater relevance of auxins than cytokinin pathways due the importance of the precursors identified. The results show a clear trend of using indole-3-pyruvate and 3-Indoleglycolaldehyde pathways to produce auxins by bacteria. The results demonstrate for the first time that 4-Pyridoxic acid, the fructosamines N-(1-Deoxy-1-fructosyl)phenylalanine and N-(1-Deoxy-1-fructosyl)isoleucine and the tripeptides diprotin A and B are metabolites related to biostimulant capabilities. This study shows how untargeted metabolomic approaches can be useful tools to investigate the bacteria exo-metabolomes related to biostimulant effects.

Foliar nutrition: Potential and challenges under multifaceted agriculture

Soil-derived nutrients by plant roots can be limited under increasing environmental stresses such as higher incidence and duration of heat and drought, which affect agricultural productivity and environmental quality in multiple ways. These unprecedented challenges urge the adoption of novel and resource-efficient strategies to close yield gaps. Foliar fertilization has been well recognized for two decades to affect crop productivity, however, the consequences of foliar spray under multiple environmental stresses remains elusive, albeit evidence to resilience agriculture has grown widely. Here, we provide a focused overview of recent developments unravelling the significance of foliar nutrition under multifaceted agricultural production scenario(s). The mechanisms involved in the absorption and translocation of foliar-applied minerals are critically discussed to highlight their efficiency and effectiveness. The potential of foliar fertilization in improving crop yield and quality under environmental stresses has been evaluated based on a meta-analysis. Foliar-applied fertilizers showed higher crop plants yield and quality traits by 15–19% and 9–29%, respectively, under different environmental stresses. The knowledge gaps to improve the effectiveness of foliar nutrition from economic and ecological perspectives has been discussed. This comprehensive review draws attention to the potential of foliar fertilization to close yield gaps and endure agriculture sustainability, particularly under hostile soils and deteriorating environmental conditions. • The rising environmental stresses are negatively affecting soil health, yield and quality of agricultural commodities • Foliar application of mineral nutrients enhances crop plants yield by 15–19% under stressful conditions • Spraying foliar fertilizers improves crop quality traits by 9–29% under salinity and drought stress conditions • Foliar nutrition is suggested to be introduced as a standard treatment in multifaceted agricultural production scenario(s)

Hyperspectral estimation of canopy chlorophyll of winter wheat by using the optimized vegetation indices

The vegetation indices (VIs) derived from the different band combinations can be used for monitoring crop quality traits. We conducted field experiments over two years time to investigate critical growth stages across four varieties and by using different nitrogen (N) application rates. In order to explore and evaluate the performance of different VIs on estimation of the canopy chlorophyll content (CCC) of winter wheat, the published and modified indices were optimized by using the random band combination through original spectrum (OS) and first-order differential (FD) treatment. The results showed that the first derivative processing improved the correlation between the red edge band and winter wheat CCC. The three-band VI can break the restriction of the number of bands on the extraction of target information, relieved the saturation problem of the dual-band VI, and improved the monitoring accuracy of winter wheat CCC. The index 2 × R1-R2-R3 was found to be the best VI for assessing the CCC of winter wheat based on the original and first-order differential spectrum (calibration R2 > 0.733), R2 and RMSE of validation set were 0.688, 0.755 and 1.515, 1.336, respectively. In addition, the index expression formula R1/(R2 × R3) was recommended as a favorable choice for monitoring the agronomic traits of crop. Moreover, the VI is suggested to use at the red edge position band to monitor crop growth indicators. In conclusion, the use of VI can better monitor winter wheat CCC which could provide a theoretical basis for precision agriculture.

Legume Breeding for the Agroecological Transition of Global Agri-Food Systems: A European Perspective.

Wider and more profitable legume crop cultivation is an indispensable step for the agroecological transition of global agri-food systems but represents a challenge especially in Europe. Plant breeding is pivotal in this context. Research areas of key interest are represented by innovative phenotypic and genome-based selection procedures for crop yield, tolerance to abiotic and biotic stresses enhanced by the changing climate, intercropping, and emerging crop quality traits. We see outmost priority in the exploration of genomic selection (GS) opportunities and limitations, to ease genetic gains and to limit the costs of multi-trait selection. Reducing the profitability gap of legumes relative to major cereals will not be possible in Europe without public funding devoted to crop improvement research, pre-breeding, and, in various circumstances, public breeding. While most of these activities may profit of significant public-private partnerships, all of them can provide substantial benefits to seed companies. A favorable institutional context may comprise some changes to variety registration tests and procedures.

Natural Biostimulant Attenuates Salinity Stress Effects in Chili Pepper by Remodeling Antioxidant, Ion, and Phytohormone Balances, and Augments Gene Expression.

A biostimulant is any microorganism or substance used to enhance the efficiency of nutrition, tolerance to abiotic stress and/or quality traits of crops, depending on its contents from nutrients. Plant biostimulants like honey bee (HB) and silymarin (Sm) are a strategic trend for managing stressed crops by promoting nutritional and hormonal balance, regulating osmotic protectors, antioxidants, and genetic potential, reflecting plant growth and productivity. We applied diluted honey bee (HB) and silymarin-enriched honey bee (HB- Sm) as foliar nourishment to investigate their improving influences on growth, yield, nutritional and hormonal balance, various osmoprotectant levels, different components of antioxidant system, and genetic potential of chili pepper plants grown under NaCl-salinity stress (10 dS m‒1). HB significantly promoted the examined attributes and HB-Sm conferred optimal values, including growth, productivity, K+/Na+ ratio, capsaicin, and Sm contents. The antioxidative defense components were significantly better than those obtained with HB alone. Conversely, levels of oxidative stress markers (superoxide ions and hydrogen peroxide) and parameters related to membrane damage (malondialdehyde level, stability index, ionic leakage, Na+, and Cl− contents) were significantly reduced. HB-Sm significantly affects inactive gene expression, as a natural biostimulator silencing active gene expression. SCoT primers were used as proof in salt-treated or untreated chili pepper plants. There were 41 cDNA amplicons selected by SCoT-primers. Twenty of them were EcDNA amplicons (cDNA-amplicons that enhanced their genes by one or more treatments) representing 49% of all cDNA amplicons, whereas 7 amplicons for ScDNA (whose genes were silenced in one or more treatments) represented 17%, and 14 McDNA (monomorphic cDNA-amplicons with control) amplicons were represented by 34% from all cDNA amplicons. This indicates the high effect of BH-Sm treatments in expression enhancement of some inactive genes and their silenced effect for expression of some active genes, also confirming that cDNA-SCoT markers succeeded in detection of variable gene expression patterns between the untreated and treated plants. In conclusion, HB-Sm as a natural multi-biostimulator can attenuate salt stress effects in chili pepper plants by remodeling the antioxidant defense system and ameliorating plant productivity.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, a key symbiosis in the development of quality traits in crop production, alone or combined with plant growth-promoting bacteria

Modern agriculture is currently undergoing rapid changes in the face of the continuing growth of world population and many ensuing environmental challenges. Crop quality is becoming as important as crop yield and can be characterised by several parameters. For fruits and vegetables, quality descriptors can concern production cycle (e.g. conventional or organic farming), organoleptic qualities (e.g. sweet taste, sugar content, acidity) and nutritional qualities (e.g. mineral content, vitamins). For other crops, however, the presence of secondary metabolites such as anthocyanins or certain terpenes in the targeted tissues is of interest as well, especially for their human health properties. All plants are constantly interacting with microorganisms. These microorganisms include arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi as well as certain soil bacteria that provide ecosystem services related to plant growth, nutrition and quality parameters. This review is an update of current research on the single and combined (co-inoculation) use of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria in crop production, with a focus on their positive impacts on crop quality traits (e.g. nutritional value, organoleptic properties). We also highlight the need to dissect mechanisms regulating plant-symbionts and symbiont-symbiont interactions, to develop farming practices and to study a broad range of interactions to optimize the symbiotic potential of root-associated microorganisms.

Novel and emerging biotechnological crop protection approaches.

SummaryTraditional breeding or genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have for a long time been the sole approaches to effectively cope with biotic and abiotic stresses and implement the quality traits of crops. However, emerging diseases as well as unpredictable climate changes affecting agriculture over the entire globe force scientists to find alternative solutions required to quickly overcome seasonal crises. In this review, we first focus on cisgenesis and genome editing as challenging biotechnological approaches for breeding crops more tolerant to biotic and abiotic stresses. In addition, we take into consideration a toolbox of new techniques based on applications of RNA interference and epigenome modifications, which can be adopted for improving plant resilience. Recent advances in these biotechnological applications are mainly reported for non‐model plants and woody crops in particular. Indeed, the characterization of RNAi machinery in plants is fundamental to transform available information into biologically or biotechnologically applicable knowledge. Finally, here we discuss how these innovative and environmentally friendly techniques combined with traditional breeding can sustain a modern agriculture and be of potential contribution to climate change mitigation.

Effect of Differential Substitution of Nutrients through Organics on Growth, Quality, Nutrient Uptake and Economics of Green Gram (Vigna radiata) in Shiwalik Foothill Region

Background: Green gram is one of the ancient and third important conventional pulse crop cultivated throughout India and acclimatized over wide range of agro-climatic zones for its multipurpose uses. Furthermore, imbalanced and inappropriate use of inorganic nutrients worsened the soil resource base by reducing the population of beneficial micro-organisms and also deteriorated the quality of the crops. Increased health consciousness among the masses has augmented the demand for safe and quality foods for which a comprehensive food production technology needs to be developed with emphasises on quality enhancement and yield stability. In fact, it is not affordable for an average Indian farmer to jump immediately from inorganic source of nutrients to organics in their crop production as it may lead to unbearable drastic reduction in crop yields in the initial years. This may become possible through the progressive substitution of organic sources of nutrients in place of in organics to meet crop nutrient requirement for attaining higher and stable crop yield of better quality with an improvement in soil health. Therefore, the present study was carried out to evaluate the effects of differential substitution of nutrients through organics on growth, yield, quality, nutrient uptake and economics of green gram in Shiwalik foothill region.Methods: In this field experiment conducted during summer 2016 and 2017, at SKUAST-Jammu, Main Campus Chatha with green gram variety SML-668 on sandy clay loam soil. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design with sixteen treatments during both the years using recommended package and practices.Result: The result of the study concluded that RDF and 75% NPK +25% N through Vermicompost and FYM (1:1) were adjudged as the best treatments with regard to crop growth parameters, yield and yield attributes, net returns and benefit cost ratio where as highest crop quality traits were realized where in 100% N was substituted through FYM followed by Vermicompost and Vermicompost and FYM (1:1). Treatment 100% N was substituted through FYM was adjudged as the best treatment in improving crop quality traits and soil properties. Further, for substitution of nutrients, green gram, for immediate shifting from in organics to organics combination of Vermicompost and FYM (1:1) can be the best option for early realization of yield at par with recommended dose of fertilizer.

Effect of some Plant Aqueous Extracts on Lettuce Growth, Chemical Constituents, Yield and Downy Mildew Disease. تأثیر المستخلص المائى لبعض النباتات على النمو والانتاج ومرض البیاض الزغبى للخس

A plant bio-stimulant is any substance or microorganism applied to plants with the aim to enhance nutrition efficiency, abiotic stress tolerance, disease resistance and/or crop quality traits, regardless of its nutrients content. Certain aqueous plant extracts of five plants i.e., Neem (Azadirachta indica), Moringa (Moringa oleifera), Garlic (Allium sativum), Basil (Ocimum basilicum) and Eucalyptus (Cinnamomum camphora) extracts and fungicide (Dithane M-45) as well as tap water as control were evaluated as foliar spray under field conduction at Experimental Farm of Horticulture Department Faculty of Agriculture Menoufia University Shibin El-Kom, during fall seasons of 2018 and 2019 against Downy mildew disease caused by (Bremia lactucae), growth, yield, quality, water relation , photosynthetic pigments and some chemical analysis of lettuce plants cv. Balady (Local lettuce cultivar). The obtained results indicated that, application of plant extracts, and fungicide significantly decreased the disease severity, disease incidence and increased the growth characters and yield of lettuce plants.

General Principles to Justify Plant Biostimulant Claims.

The forthcoming European Union (EU) Fertilizing Products Regulation1 proposes a claim-based definition of plant biostimulants, stipulating that “plant biostimulant” means a product stimulating plant nutrition processes independently of the product’s nutrient content, with the aim of improving one or more of the following characteristics of the plant: nutrient use efficiency, tolerance to abiotic stress, crop quality traits or availability of confined nutrients in the soil and rhizosphere. The future regulation also specifies that a plant biostimulant “shall have the effects that are claimed on the label for the plants specified thereon.” This creates an onus for manufacturers to demonstrate to regulators and customers that product claims are justified. Consequently, the justification of the agronomic claim of a given plant biostimulant will be an important element to allow it to be placed on the EU market once this new European regulation is applied. In this article, members of the European Biostimulant Industry Council (EBIC) propose some general guiding principles to follow when justifying plant biostimulant claims, that are outlined in this article. These principles are expected to be incorporated into harmonized European standards that are being developed by the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) to support the implementation of the regulation.

Role of biostimulants with special reference to Panchgavya and Jeevamrit in floriculture-a review

Aplant biostimulant is any substance or microorganism applied to plants with the aim to enhance nutrient efficiency, abiotic stress tolerance and crop quality traits regardless of its nutrients content. Biostimulants are the materials other than fertilizers that promote plant growth when applied in low quantities. They offer a potentially novel approach for the regulation/modification of physiological processes in plants to stimulate growth, to mitigate stress-induced limitations and to increase yield. The increased interest in sustainable agriculture favours the studies on more environmental-friendly organic-based materials which are more readily available. The rising concern for environmental safety and global demand for pesticide residue free produce has evoked keen interest in crop production using eco-friendly products which are easily biodegradable and do not have any harmful toxic residues besides conserving nature. Therefore use of fermented organic nutrients viz Panchgavya, Jeevamrit, Beejamrit and vermiwash etc is becoming popular among farmers and research communities with the aim of improving crop productivity and attaining sustainable soil fertility along with reducing the cultivation cost.