Growing conditions and seasonal fluctuations are critical factors affecting fruit and vegetable nutritional quality. The effects of two partially overlapping cropping seasons, early (ECS; January–May) and full (FCS; March–July), on the main carpometric traits and bioactive components of different watermelon fruits were investigated in the open field. Four watermelon genotypes, comprising of three commercial cultivars ‘Crimson Sweet’, ‘Dumara’, ‘Giza’, and the novel hybrid ‘P503 F1’, were compared. The carpometric traits varied significantly between genotypes. Soluble solids and yield were higher under FCS than ECS. The variation affecting colour indexes between the two growing seasons exhibited a genotype-dependent trend. The antioxidant components and radical scavenging activity of watermelon fruits were also significantly affected by differences in received solar energy and temperature fluctuations during the trial period. The average citrulline, total phenolics and flavonoid contents were 93%, 71% and 40% higher in FCS than in ECS. A genotype-dependent variation trend was also observed for lycopene and total vitamin C between cropping seasons. The hydrophilic and lipophilic radical scavenging activities of the pulp of ripe watermelon fruits of the different genotypes investigated varied between 243.16 and 425.31 µmol Trolox Equivalent (TE) of 100 g⁻¹ of fresh weight (fw) and from 232.71 to 341.67 µmol TE of 100 g⁻¹ fw in FCS and ECS, respectively. Our results, although preliminary, show that the functional quality of watermelon fruits is drastically altered depending on the environmental conditions that characterize the ECS and LCS.

The objective of this paper is to identify the influencing factors of farmers’ willingness for early adoption of enhanced irrigation technologies in Tunisia. We estimate a multinomial logit model with data from 931 farmers in Central (Chebika) and Northern (Fernana) of Tunisia. Regression results reveal that early adoption is positively influenced by levels of extension service quality, trust in farmers’ associations and extension agents, farmer’s perception towards the innovation, credit access, and off-farm income. However, it is negatively affected by market access issues, risk aversion, and age. Risk, trust, and perception towards technology are important factors in driving early adoption decision. The findings imply that farmers training on water conservation technologies, financial support for innovation adoption, awareness of young farmers about the opportunities of agricultural innovation, incentives to farmers’ associations in order to improve their market access, and inclusive participatory approaches during technology generation and transfer are all accelerators of early adoption speed of innovations by farmers.

The sustainability analysis of wheat farms is increasingly becoming interesting for the scientific community in order to help propose a production model ensuring food security and sustainability of agricultural production. This work aims to assess cereal farms’ sustainability in Northern Tunisia via analyzing the effect of farm size on sustainability dimensions. Toward this aim, the Farm Sustainability Indicators (IDEA) method and statistical tests (ANOVA, LSD) were used for the analysis of the obtained data from a representative sample consisting of 200 farms—located in the governorates of Beja, Jendouba and Bizerte—with different sizes (<5 ha; 5–20 ha and more than 20 ha). The IDEA method is built from three indicators of sustainability (environmental, social and economic) in agriculture. The results showed a very high variability in the sustainability scores of durum wheat farms. In fact, the scores relating to each sustainability dimension vary according to the farm size. Overall, the results highlight that small farms are the most economically vulnerable despite being friendly to the environment. However, large farms were relatively more viable, but less environmentally friendly.

In Tunisia, the development of the irrigated cereal sector plays a key role in the mitigation of the fluctuation of the rainfed production and to ensure a minimum of production. However, the archived yields remain under the expected potential performance, and the water productivity is very low. Hence, this work aims to investigate the performance of the irrigated durum wheat activity and to identify eventual determinants to improve the water productivity. To reach the objective, a field survey was carried out with a sample of 555 farmers. We adopted a data envelopment analysis approach to assess the technical efficiency and water use efficiency. A Tobit model was estimated to identify determinants of the technical performance. The results showed that the technical efficiency reached only 63%, which meant that farmers could increase the durum wheat yield from 3.5 tha⁻¹ to 4.8 tha⁻¹. The water use efficiency reached only 30%, which translates to an unwise use of the water resource. The results also showed an eventual improvement of the water productivity by more importantly saving the irrigation water rather than optimizing the production. To improve the performances, the results revealed some key determinants that could be taken into account by policy makers to implement appropriate strategies.

Postharvest storage conditions frequently affect nutritional quality of fruits and vegetables. Temperature and storage duration are the most important factors to extend shelf life and maintain quality of fresh watermelon. This study was conducted to determine the changes in the antioxidant properties of watermelon during storage. Fruits of the watermelon cultivars were harvested and stored at 5ºC for a period of 15 days. During storage antioxidant contents (lycopene and total phenolics) and total antioxidant activity were evaluated. The objective of this work was to determine the content of the antioxidant properties in different watermelon genotypes at four different postharvest storage periods (0, 5, 10 and 15 days). Furthermore, the nutritional quality is strongly influenced by the storage period. The cv Mahdia was the most suitable for extended storage periods.