Humic Acid-Functionalized Lignin-Based Coatings Regulate Nutrient Release and Promote Wheat Productivity and Grain Quality.

The rational application of fertilizers is crucial for achieving high crop yields and ensuring global food security. The use of biopolymers for slow-release fertilizers (SRFs) development has emerged as a game-changer and environmentally sustainable pathway to enhance crop yields by optimizing plant growth phases. Herein, with a renewed focus on circular bioeconomy, a novel functionalized lignin-based coating material (FLGe) was developed for the sustained release of nutrients.

Modeling the spatial-spectral characteristics of plants for nutrient status identification using hyperspectral data and deep learning methods.

Sustainable fertilizer management in precision agriculture is essential for both economic and environmental reasons. To effectively manage fertilizer input, various methods are employed to monitor and track plant nutrient status. One such method is hyperspectral imaging, which has been on the rise in recent times.

Field phenotyping for African crops: overview and perspectives.

Improvements in crop productivity are required to meet the dietary demands of the rapidly-increasing African population. The development of key staple crop cultivars that are high-yielding and resilient to biotic and abiotic stresses is essential. To contribute to this objective, high-throughput plant phenotyping approaches are important enablers for the African plant science community to measure complex quantitative phenotypes and to establish the genetic basis of agriculturally relevant traits.

Machine Learning Methods for Automatic Segmentation of Images of Field- and Glasshouse-Based Plants for High-Throughput Phenotyping.

Image segmentation is a fundamental but critical step for achieving automated high- throughput phenotyping. While conventional segmentation methods perform well in homogenous environments, the performance decreases when used in more complex environments. This study aimed to develop a fast and robust neural-network-based segmentation tool to phenotype plants in both field and glasshouse environments in a high-throughput manner.

Methylcellulose/lignin biocomposite as an eco-friendly and multifunctional coating material for slow-release fertilizers: Effect on nutrients management and wheat growth.

To obviate adverse effects from the non-biodegradability of certain polymer-based slow-release fertilizers (SRFs) and to offset higher operational costs, the use of biopolymers as coating material has recently caught interest in the research circles. The present work aims to design a sustainable coating material based on biodegradable polymers. To this end, Alfa plant was initially exploited as a viable sustainable source for the extraction of lignin (LGe), which was in turn integrated into the development of a three-dimensional cross-linked network, including methylcellulose (MC) as a matrix and citric acid (CA) as a cross-linking agent.

Box-Behnken Design: Wet Process Optimization for Saponins Removal From Seeds and the Study of Its Effect on Nutritional Properties.

The pseudocereal grain, Quinoa ( Willd.), has a great nutritional value due to its high contents of proteins, fiber, minerals, and vitamins. However, saponins naturally present outside the grains represent an obstacle to their consumption as human food.

Bioformulation of Silk-Based Coating to Preserve and Deliver to Under Saline Environments.

Seed priming has been for a long time an efficient application method of biofertilizers and biocontrol agents. Due to the quick degradation of the priming agents, this technique has been limited to specific immediate uses. With the increase of awareness of the importance of sustainable use of biofertilizers, seed coating has presented a competitive advantage regarding its ability to adhere easily to the seed, preserve the inoculant, and decompose in the soil.

Programmable design of seed coating function induces water-stress tolerance in semi-arid regions.

In semi-arid regions, water stress during seed germination and early seedling growth is the highest cause of crop loss. In nature, some seeds (for example, chia and basil) produce a mucilage-based hydrogel that creates a germination-promoting microenvironment by retaining water, regulating nutrient entry and facilitating interactions with beneficial microorganisms. Inspired by this strategy, a two-layered biopolymer-based seed coating has been developed to increase germination and water-stress tolerance in semi-arid, sandy soils.

Engineering the Plant Microenvironment To Facilitate Plant-Growth-Promoting Microbe Association.

New technologies that enhance soil biodiversity and minimize the use of scarce resources while boosting crop production are highly sought to mitigate the increasing threats that climate change, population growth, and desertification pose on the food infrastructure. In particular, solutions based on plant-growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) bring merits of self-replication, low environmental impact, tolerance to biotic and abiotic stressors, and reduction of inputs, such as fertilizers. However, challenges in facilitating PGPB delivery in the soil still persist and include survival to desiccation, precise delivery, programmable resuscitation, competition with the indigenous rhizosphere, and soil structure.

Variations of Saponins, Minerals and Total Phenolic Compounds Due to Processing and Cooking of Quinoa ( Willd.) Seeds.

Quinoa ( Willd.) is a grain of great nutritional interest that gained international importance during the last decade. Before its consumption, this grain goes through many processes that can alter its nutritional value.

An Insight into Saponins from Quinoa ( Willd): A Review.

Saponins are an important group found in . They represent an obstacle for the use of quinoa as food for humans and animal feeds because of their bitter taste and toxic effects, which necessitates their elimination. Several saponins elimination methods have been examined to leach the saponins from the quinoa seeds; the wet technique remains the most used at both laboratory and industrial levels.