Rupa Das

By Rupa Das and Saikat Biswas

Climate change is exerting detrimental impacts on agriculture through various biotic and abiotic stresses. Abiotic stresses such as drought, flood, temperature extremes, salinity, chemicals, heavy metals, nutrient scarcity/toxicity, wind and light in combination more adversely affect the seed production and quality by hampering plant’s morphological, physiological, cellular, biochemical and molecular activities than alone, resulting in poor production of high-quality seeds. Deterioration of yield and quality arises also under abiotic stresses. Under abiotic stresses, plant activates its own defensive mechanisms by escaping, avoiding and tolerating stresses. Some of the plant’s defensive mechanisms include plant’s morphological, cellular, physiological, biochemical and molecular changes to adapt the stresses, synthesis of compounds such as ABA, proline, polyamines increasing the activities of ROS quenchers, expression of stress-resisting genes and activation of enzymes. Further, exogenous application of phytohormones, stress-alleviating compounds, modification of agronomic management, modern breeding strategies such as development of resistant varieties can also help to cope up with stresses and produce quality seeds. Financial and policy support of government or NGOs regarding development of infrastructure, research technologies and thereby, multi-locational trials as well as technology transfusion through extension activities are needed to curtail down the devastating impact of abiotic stresses on quality seed production.

Part of the book: Seed Biology Updates

By Saikat Biswas, Rupa Das and Lay Lay Nwe

Climate change is resultant from modern-day chemical agriculture, which is creating negative impacts on crop production. Global agriculture is now facing various problems arising due to abiotic stresses such as flood, drought, temperature extremes, light extremes, salinity, heavy metal stress, nutrient toxicity/deficiency. These stresses not only hamper the growth and production but also reduce the quality of crops through morphological, physiological, biochemical changes and synthesis of ROS. Further, they negatively impact on entire environment specially soil health. Deterioration of yield and quality often occurs due to lack of essential inputs to plants under abiotic stresses. Although plants adopt defensive mechanisms, such abiotic stresses need to be addressed properly with various eco-friendly organic farming approaches. Different organic inputs like organic manures, biofertilizers, bio-priming with micro-organisms, bio-stimulants (seaweed extracts, humic acid, micro-organisms, etc.), mulches, biochar are known to alleviate abiotic stresses under climate change scenario. Further, various organic agronomic practices viz. crop rotation, intercropping, tillage, sowing methods and time, nutrient, water and intercultural operations, use of PGPB, organic formulations, grafting, selection of resistant/tolerant varieties and other scientific/wise uses of organic inputs can mitigate/escape the negative impacts of abiotic stresses resulting in upliftment in crop production as well as the quality of produce.

Part of the book: Plant Physiology Annual Volume 2023