Water scarcity is a major challenge to wheat productivity under changing climate conditions, especially in arid and semi-arid regions. During recent years, different agronomic, physiological and molecular approaches have been used to overcome the problems related to drought stress. Breeding approaches, including conventional and modern breeding, are among the most efficient options to overcome drought stress through the development of new varieties adapted to drought. Growing drought-tolerant wheat genotypes may be a sustainable option to boost wheat productivity under drought stress conditions. Therefore, the present study was conducted with the aim to screen different wheat genotypes based on stress tolerance levels. For this purpose, eleven commonly cultivated wheat genotypes (V₁ = Akbar-2019, V₂ = Ghazi-2019, V₃ = Ujala-2016, V₄ = Zincol-2016, V₅ = Anaj-2017, V₆ = Galaxy-2013, V₇ = Pakistan-2013, V₈ = Seher-2006, V₉ = Lasani-2008, V₁₀ = Faisalabad-2008 and V₁₁ = Millat-2011) were grown in pots filled with soil under well-watered (WW, 70% of field capacity) and water stress (WS, 35% of field capacity) conditions. Treatments were arranged under a completely randomized design (CRD) with three replicates. Data on yield and yield-related traits (tillers/plant, spikelets/spike, grains/spike, 100 grain weight, seed and biological yield) and physio-biochemical (chlorophyll contents, relative water content, membrane stability index, leaf nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium content) attributes were recorded in this experiment. Our results showed that drought stress significantly affected the morpho-physiological, and biochemical attributes in all tested wheat varieties. Among the genotypes, all traits were found to be significantly (p < 0.05) higher in wheat genotype Faisalabad-2008, including biological yield (9.50 g plant⁻¹) and seed yield (3.39 g plant⁻¹), which was also proven to be more drought tolerant than the other tested genotypes. The higher biological and grain yield of genotype Faisalabad-2008 was mainly attributed to greater numbers of tillers/plant and spikelets/spike compared to the other tested genotypes. The wheat genotype Galaxy-2013 had significantly lower biological (7.43 g plant⁻¹) and seed yield (2.11 g plant⁻¹) than all other tested genotypes, and was classified as a drought-sensitive genotype. For the genotypes, under drought stress, biological and grain yield decreased in the order V₁₀ > V₂ > V₁ > V₄ > V₇ > V₁₁ > V₉ > V₈ > V₃ > V₆. These results suggest that screening for drought-tolerant genotypes may be a more viable option to minimize drought-induced effects on wheat in drought-prone regions.

| Nutrients deficiency is a major threat against maize growth. The effects of nutrients can be mitigated by vermicompost, vermi-tea and chemical fertilizers. With the objective to combat the nutrients deficiency, an experiment was conducted in Riverm Kompost Vermikompost Tarım Hay. Mak. San. ve Ltd. Şti. Suleymanpasa, Tekirdag, Turkey under field conditions. In field four different states of fertilizers [F 0 : Control (No fertilizer application); F vc : Solid vermicompost @ 5 ton/ha; F vt : vermi-tea @ 6 %; F c : Chemical fertilizers (N and P) @ 120-100 kg/ha were applied in maize hybrid P30B74. The plants were harvested 45 days after sowing and the evaluation was done on the basis of various morphological (root length, shoot length, root fresh weight, shoot fresh weight, root dry weight, shoot dry weight, number of leaf, leaf length, stem girth) and physiological parameters (relative water contents (RWC), chlorophyll contents and membrane stability index (MSI)). The obtained results indicated that vermi-fertilizers and chemical fertilizer significantly increased all of the above said parameters of maize as compared to control but foliar application of 6% vermi-tea treatment showed maximum morphological and physiological performance of maize.

| Presenting the world state of the art review, which summarizes the core ideas from experiments performed by expert researchers on vermicomposting. Vermicompost is a finely decomposed peat like material having good aeration, high drainage, good water holding capacity, microbial activity, superior in nutrient status and buffering capacity therefore having the amiable required physiochemical charms for fertility of soil and growth of plant. The worms increase the biological decomposition of organic substrates by maintaining the aerobic conditions of the organic substrates. Experiments on earthworms and the vermicast production by different species are also included in review. The paper also reveals fitness or compatibility of different species of earthworms to ‘bioprocess’ variation in different forms of organic waste. The review also presents the basic idea of all those research studies about effect of vermicomposting on different parameters of plant growth. Such an explanatory review is remarkably few and far among studies about the impact on plants of vermicasts prepared from aquatic weeds and agriculture wastes.

| Nutrient deficiency is a serious threat to tomato growth and productivity. Application of vermicompost, vermi-tea, simple compost and chemical fertilizers can help to minimize this threat. In order to combat nutrient deficiency, an experiment was carried out to optimize the best dose of fertilizers for tomato crop at Student Research Farm, Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad in a tunnel under field conditions. The experiment had five treatments in which the mineral (NP) fertilizer, simple compost, earthworm’s excreta-based vermicompost and vermi-tea were alone and combined in different proportions as (T 0 : control (recommended fertilizers), T 1 : 100% simple compost, T 2 : 100% vermicompost, T 3 : 100% vermi-tea, T 4 : 33% simple compost + 33% vermicompost + 34% vermi-tea and T 5 : 25% simple compost + 25% vermicompost + 25% vermi-tea+ 25% chemical fertilizers) were applied in tomato variety Aroma. The assessment was performed on the basis of morphological, yield and yield related traits (petiole length, no. of primary branches, stem diameter, time taken for flowering, time taken to fruit set, fruit diameter, fruit length, fruit weight plant -1 , plant -1 no. of fruits, plant -1 fruit yield, and yield ha -1 ) and physiological traits (membrane stability index, relative water content of leaves, total carotenoids, chlorophyll a , chlorophyll b , total chlorophyll ( a+b) contents, SPAD value of chlorophyll and photosynthetic rate). The obtained results indicated that treatment T 5 had significantly (p<0.05) higher fruit yield (1.50 kg/plant, 15.5 kg/plot and 13657 kg/ha) while treatment T 0 had significantly lower fruit yield (0.87 kg/plant, 8.33 kg/plot, and 7900 kg/ha) as compared to all other treatments.

| Inorganic fertilizers and pesticides have eliminated beneficial microorganisms, depleted soil fertility, and lowered natural resistance in crops, making them more susceptible to disease and having detrimental consequences for the environment and human health. To address these issues, we must turn to ecologically friendly alternatives like vermicompost tea and vermicompost, which not only increase crop growth and production while lowering diseases and pests over time, but also protect environment and human health. Vermicomposting is the process of breaking down and stabilizing solid organic waste to produce fine organic rich manure that can be readily stored, processed, and put into agricultural areas with no negative repercussions. In the vermicomposting process, earth worms and mesophilic microbes collaborate to digest solid agricultural waste under controlled circumstances, resulting in a stable form of organic matter. Earthworms produce vermicompost, which contains growth-regulating hormones, macro-micro nutrients, plant-immobilized microflora, growth regulators and promoters and cellular portion degrading enzymes (cellulose, proteases, lipase, amylases, chitinase), which degrade organic substrates even after they have been secreted. Earthworms change the chemical and physical characteristics of organic substrates, over time reducing the C:N ratio, increasing the surface area exposed to bacteria, and improving the microbial degradability of organic materials. This study aims to demonstrate how organic amendments, rather than chemical fertilizers, might improve soil health and plant development. Plant nutrition, growth, photosynthesis, and chlorophyll content in the leaves are all improved by the absorption of macro- and micronutrients in vermicompost. End users, such as farmers, may benefit significantly from the vermicompost generated, since it can be used to replace chemical fertilizers and get higher price for organic products by utilizing locally available composting material.