About this Research Topic
Sustainable agriculture emphasizes the adoption of environmentally benign practices to ensure food security while protecting and maintaining the environment and natural resources. Climate change poses a severe risk to agricultural sustainability by inducing additional abiotic stresses upon crops. This may reduce food production and therefore threatens food security. Such climate change-induced stresses include soil salinization, a shortage of irrigation water, and an increased frequency and intensity of heatwaves. These conditions create further stress for crops by reducing the health of the soil microbiota and promoting the spread of pathogens. The reduced crop production has subsequent effects on food prices and bilateral trading patterns.
Innovative farming technologies must be implemented to counter the effects of these abiotic stresses and allow us to meet the challenge of feeding a growing population sustainably. Biostimulants are a promising approach for achieving sustainable agriculture since they are often regarded as a renewable source of plant nutrients, promote crop production and soil health, and have become a vital constituent in integrated crop and soil management.
During the last decade, there has been a growing interest in the potential use of biostimulants (e.g. plant growth-promoting fungi (PGPF) including arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and Trichoderma spp, plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR), seaweed extracts (SWE), and organic amendments) to enhance nutrient use efficiency, and/or tolerance to abiotic stress, and/or crop quality/functionality traits. Although a significant number of studies were published to understand the beneficial effects of these biostimulants, there is still a rising demand for new biostimulant formulations to achieve sustainable agriculture under different climate change associated abiotic stresses.
This Research Topic welcomes submissions of original research articles, reviews, opinion, and methods that address the recent advances and challenges in new biostimulant formulations for growth promotion and plant protection.
Topics for submission may include (but are not limited to) the following:
• Microbial and non-microbial biostimulants application for plant growth promotion and/or protection
• Synergistice role of novel biostimulant combinations in improving plant performance
• Innovative and more effective biostimulant formulations for growth promotion and plant protection under climate change associated abiotic stresses
• Drivers and mechanisms of plant-biostimulant interactions
• Biostimulants role(s) in crop adaptation under climate change-associated abiotic stresses
• Biostimulants for improving soil fertility and microbiome diversity
Innovative farming technologies must be implemented to counter the effects of these abiotic stresses and allow us to meet the challenge of feeding a growing population sustainably. Biostimulants are a promising approach for achieving sustainable agriculture since they are often regarded as a renewable source of plant nutrients, promote crop production and soil health, and have become a vital constituent in integrated crop and soil management.
During the last decade, there has been a growing interest in the potential use of biostimulants (e.g. plant growth-promoting fungi (PGPF) including arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and Trichoderma spp, plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR), seaweed extracts (SWE), and organic amendments) to enhance nutrient use efficiency, and/or tolerance to abiotic stress, and/or crop quality/functionality traits. Although a significant number of studies were published to understand the beneficial effects of these biostimulants, there is still a rising demand for new biostimulant formulations to achieve sustainable agriculture under different climate change associated abiotic stresses.
This Research Topic welcomes submissions of original research articles, reviews, opinion, and methods that address the recent advances and challenges in new biostimulant formulations for growth promotion and plant protection.
Topics for submission may include (but are not limited to) the following:
• Microbial and non-microbial biostimulants application for plant growth promotion and/or protection
• Synergistice role of novel biostimulant combinations in improving plant performance
• Innovative and more effective biostimulant formulations for growth promotion and plant protection under climate change associated abiotic stresses
• Drivers and mechanisms of plant-biostimulant interactions
• Biostimulants role(s) in crop adaptation under climate change-associated abiotic stresses
• Biostimulants for improving soil fertility and microbiome diversity
Keywords: Sustainable agriculture, Climate change, Biotic stress, Abiotic stress, Plant growth-promoting microorganisms, Crop production, Plant tolerance, Organic amendments
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
