Dear Colleagues,

in the era of climate change and the global population growth, the need to develop approaches to the agricultural sector that are sustainable and respectful of the natural resources (water, soil and biodiversity) becomes increasing, in order not to compromise the survival of the future generations, while promoting a productivity rise for meeting the food needs of the current population. Sustainable agriculture can therefore simply be considered a method for making territories and communities resilient.

Among the aims of sustainable agriculture, to increase productivity by reducing water and energy consumption, and to protect the environment by reducing the sources of pollution and soil erosion and by protecting natural ecosystems, are certainly a priority.

This Special Issue collects contributions, including original research papers, reviews, methods or opinions, relating to studies conducted on different sectors of agriculture, in which purely agronomic and physiological approaches are flanked by those typical of the omics sciences, which in the last decade have been gaining an important role in supporting agronomic studies. Genomic, transcriptomic and proteomic studies make it possible to identify genes and/or proteins with key roles in the response to different stress conditions or, through the study of molecular mechanisms, make it possible to better understand phenological conditions that are altered by ongoing global warming. As well as considerable interest is addressed to metagenomic studies that allow the study of microbial communities directly in their natural environment, where they can play a key role in the adaptability of crops to the various biotic and abiotic stress conditions. Finally, articles introducing studies related to biotechnologies application, that could be crucial for improving the crop performance in sustainable agriculture, are welcome too.

The collected contributions will be able to stimulate discussion and debate within the scientific community which identifies sustainable agriculture as an important opportunity to "cultivate" the future.

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• sustainable agriculture
• water consumption
• climate change
• soil erosion
• productivity
• omics sciences
• biotechnologies
• biotic and abiotic stress
• biodiversity
• physiology