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Advances in Biostimulant Applications and Sustainable Crop Production

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Agriculture".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2022) | Viewed by 9883

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Sławomir Kocira

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Guest Editor

1. Department of Machinery Exploitation and Management of Production Processes, University of Life Sciences in Lublin, 20-950 Lublin, Poland
2. Department of Landscape Management, Faculty of Agriculture and Technology, University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, 370 05 České Budějovice, Czech Republic
Interests: plant biostimulants; sustainable agriculture; biostimulator; quality of plants materials; quality management
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Dr. Luigi Lucini

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Guest Editor

Department for Sustainable Food Processes, Università Cattolica Del Sacro Cuore, 29122 Piacenza, Italy
Interests: food profiling; functional components; food authenticity; traceability
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Agnieszka Szparaga

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Guest Editor

Department of Landscape Management, Faculty of Agriculture and Technology, University of South Bohemia, 370 05 České Budějovice, Czech Republic
Interests: sustainable agriculture; biostimulants; food technology; quality of plants materials; quality management; crops; modeling; allelopathy; plant extracts; optimization
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Today, one of the greatest challenges faced by the agriculture and food industries is developing sustainable and environmentally friendly systems to meet the nutritional demand of the continuously growing global population. One of the solutions that would enable increasing crop yields and protecting produce would be implementing novel agricultural technologies and the development of the existing ones. Additional challenges posed to sustainable agricultural production include reducing inputs and/or improvement in crop quality, especially under nonoptimal growth conditions. This would result in higher profits to farmers, which would also be translated into greater possibilities of storing plant materials after harvest and achieving higher yields of crops with quality and nutritional values that are acceptable by increasingly more aware consumers. Nonetheless, biostimulants can represent a tool to mitigate the environmental impact of agriculture. Considering the above, the agriculture industry has to cope with severe challenges and, undoubtedly, be supported by many scientific disciplines, allowing for its subsequent but modern and responsible development.

Biostimulants represent a group of products (other than fertilizers) that promote plant growth when used in small doses. Both microorganisms and products arising from natural origin (e.g., protein hydrolysates, algal extracts, humic acids) are being increasingly used as biostimulants. These ecosystem-friendly, natural formulations promote plant growth, nutrient uptake, and plant tolerance to abiotic stresses. The interest expressed by contemporary agriculture in this category of bioproducts is due to the intensive search for novel preparations that could effectively reduce the use of synthetic agrochemicals.

This Special Issue will welcome interdisciplinary research, including laboratory research; studies on new technologies and products for plant growth stimulation; case studies; and field experiments showing a critical approach to the possibility of developing sustainable agriculture solutions based on the application of biostimulants. This Special Issue aims to identify research and scientific approaches to the critical problem of sustainable agriculture.

Prof. Dr. Sławomir Kocira
Prof. Dr. Luigi Lucini
Prof. Dr. Agnieszka Szparaga
Guest Editors

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.

Keywords

sustainable crop production
innovations and challenges for biostimulant application
evolution of biostimulants
low-input agriculture
novel natural resources for biostimulants
screening for new biostimulants
agricultural functions of plant biostimulants
mechanism of action of plant biostimulants
economic and quality aspects of sustainable crop production based on biostimulant application
biostimulants and precision agriculture
biostimulants and quality of fruits and vegetables
practical guides for biostimulant application in crop production

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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17 pages, 1784 KiB

Open AccessArticle

European Green Deal: Threats Assessment for Agri-Food Exporting Countries to the EU

by Oleksandr Faichuk, Lesia Voliak, Taras Hutsol, Szymon Glowacki, Yuriy Pantsyr, Sergii Slobodian, Anna Szeląg-Sikora and Zofia Gródek-Szostak

Sustainability 2022, 14(7), 3712; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14073712 - 22 Mar 2022

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 4373

Abstract

This article is devoted to assessing and substantiating the threats for countries/exporters of agricultural products to the EU under conditions of the European Green Deal. The revealed comparative advantages index (RCA), comparison method, correlation and regression analysis, and taxonomic method have been applied. According to the RCA index the main causes for the relatively significant volume of agri-food exports by some countries to the EU have been identified; using the comparison method it was found that among the leading countries by agricultural products export to the EU, many states do not meet the European Green Deal target criteria for agriculture. Correlation and regression analysis has revealed that among the chosen factors only the volume of fertilisers use per cropland has direct and strong influence on CO2eq emissions; by a taxonomic method the threats value for the leading agri-food exporters to the EU has been calculated. The major agri-food exporters to the EU under conditions of the European Green Deal targets till 2030 have a high threat regarding reduction of their supply to the Member States in the case of a possible Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism or the introduction of other import restriction mechanisms in future. The results of the study can be used by the government and other executive bodies of the analysed countries to make adequate and rapid decisions to avoid the threats of possible agri-food exports reduction to the EU under the further European Green Deal implementation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Biostimulant Applications and Sustainable Crop Production)

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12 pages, 1013 KiB

Open AccessCommunication

Cold Plasma as a Potential Activator of Plant Biostimulants

by Sławomir Kocira, María Cecilia Pérez-Pizá, Andrea Bohata, Petr Bartos and Agnieszka Szparaga

Sustainability 2022, 14(1), 495; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14010495 - 04 Jan 2022

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2418

Abstract

Agriculture has become a sector with a huge impact on the natural environment. The interest of agriculture in the category of innovative bio-stimulants is due to the intensive search for preparations based on natural substances. This is not possible without developing and implementing innovative technologies, e.g., cold plasma, along with innovative technologies supporting farmers. Therefore, given the need to prevent environmental damage caused by intensive agriculture, plant production and protection must be targeted at merging the stimulation of crop growth and the elimination of threats to humans and the environment. The analysis of how cold plasma can influence the production of organic bio-stimulants seems to be an unavoidable step in future approaches to this topic. Since allelopathic plants represent a source of many chemical compounds promoting crop growth and development, the coupling of biologically-active compound extraction with plasma activation of allelopathic extracts has interesting potential in offering the most modern alternative to conventional agriculture. However, its implementation in practice will only be feasible after a comprehensive and thoughtful investigation of the mechanisms behind crops’ response to such bio-stimulants. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Biostimulant Applications and Sustainable Crop Production)

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Review

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17 pages, 336 KiB

Open AccessReview

Phytoextracts as Crop Biostimulants and Natural Protective Agents—A Critical Review

by Nudrat Aisha Akram, Muhammad Hamzah Saleem, Sidra Shafiq, Hira Naz, Muhammad Farid-ul-Haq, Baber Ali, Fahad Shafiq, Muhammad Iqbal, Mariusz Jaremko and Kamal Ahmad Qureshi

Sustainability 2022, 14(21), 14498; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su142114498 - 04 Nov 2022

Cited by 25 | Viewed by 2050

Abstract

Excessive application of synthetic chemicals to crops is a serious environmental concern. This review suggests that some potential natural compounds can be used as alternatives and could be applied directly to plants to improve crop growth and productivity. These phytoextracts can serve as biostimulants to induce abiotic and biotic stress tolerance in different crops growing under diverse environmental conditions. The biosynthesis and accumulation of a variety of chemical compounds such as glycinebetaine, vitamins, nutrients, and secondary metabolites in some plants are of great value and an environmentally friendly cheaper source than several synthetic substances of a similar nature. The review summarizes the information regarding the potential role of different plant phytoextracts and suggests subsequent applications to modulate crop stress tolerance. Future studies should focus on the relative effectiveness of these plant-based extracts compared with their synthetic counterparts and focus on practical applications to signify sustainable practices linked with the use of natural products. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Biostimulant Applications and Sustainable Crop Production)

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