Global food security is a worldwide concern. Food insecurity is a significant threat to poverty and hunger eradication goals. Agriculture is one of the focal points in the global policy agenda. Increases in agricultural productivity through the incorporation of technological advances or expansion of cultivable land areas have been pushed forward. However, production growth has slowed in many parts of the world due to various endemic challenges, such as decreased investment in agricultural research, lack of infrastructure in rural areas, and increasing water scarcity. Climate change adversities in agriculture and food security are increasing. Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected global food supply chains. Economic and social instability from the pandemic contribute to long-term disturbances. Additionally, conflicts such as war directly affect agriculture by environmental degradation, violence, and breaches of national and international trade agreements. A combination of food security and climate change challenges along with increased conflicts among nations and post-COVID-19 social and economic issues bring bigger and more serious threats to agriculture. This necessitates the strategic design of policies through multifaceted fields regarding food systems. In this comprehensive review, we explore how these three challenging factors, COVID-19, climate change, and conflicts, are interrelated, and how they affect food security. We discuss the impact of these issues on the agricultural sector, plus possible ways of preventing or overcoming such adverse effects.

Given the current urbanization context and rising interest in green roof systems, growing a high-value crop such as saffron crocus in green roof medium could be an opportunity to use the benefits of both the crop and the green roof system; the drainage, aeration, and sand-like texture of green roof media make it suited for saffron production, and the saffron market price could make green roof production commercially viable. Various factors, including plant diseases and planting depth, could affect saffron production. Therefore, this research was conducted to evaluate the effects of planting depth and biofungicide treatments using Bacillus subtilis on saffron production in a green roof system. A completely randomized factorial block design was used with planting depth (10 cm and 15 cm) and B. subtilis strain QST 713 biofungicide treatments (an untreated control, 15.6 × 10 ⁹ cfu/L, and 31.2 × 10 ⁹ cfu/L) as independent variables. In 2019, fresh flower yield, fresh stigma yield, and dry stigma yield were calculated during harvesting, and additional data on flower number, tepal length and width, stigma length, and harvest time were collected in 2020. All variables were analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) with planting depth and biofungicide treatments as fixed effects using R. Fresh stigma yield and dry stigma yield were higher in the 10-cm planting depth in 2019. Results were opposite in 2020: flower number, fresh flower yield, fresh stigma yield, dry stigma yield, and harvest time were higher in the 15-cm planting depth than the 10-cm planting depth. B. subtilis treatments did not affect any studied variable in 2020, but in 2019, the higher level of fungicide treatment resulted in lower fresh flower yield and dry stigma yield. There was no effect of biofungicide treatment and planting depth on tepal length, tepal width, and stigma length in both years. This study showed that growing saffron crocus on green roofs is feasible and even resulted in higher yield than field production in many saffron-producing regions and countries. In addition, results indicated that shallow planting might be suitable for annual production, whereas deeper planting could be ideal for perennial production based on the objective. Our findings demonstrated the feasibility of saffron production in the green roof system and suggest further research to develop best management practices.

Climate change–driven increases in drought and rainfall variability present new challenges for grape production, even in regions with historically high precipitation. Rootstock selection and irrigation management are important tools for optimizing vine performance and fruit and wine composition, yet their combined effects remain poorly understood in hybrid grape cultivars grown in humid regions. We evaluated own-rooted Chambourcin and vines grafted to 1103 Paulsen (1103P), 3309 Couderc (3309C), and SO4 under three irrigation regimes (none, 50% ET replacement, and full irrigation) over three growing seasons in Missouri, USA. Across 105 trait-by-year combinations, including vine physiology, yield components, berry chemistry, and berry and wine volatiles, we partitioned variance explained by irrigation, rootstock, their interaction, and vineyard block. Irrigation exerted year-dependent effects on vine water status, gas exchange, organic acids, and selected volatiles, with the strongest physiological responses in 2014, when precipitation was lowest and water-balance deficit was greatest. However, irrigation effects were not limited to this dry year, as selected berry chemistry, vine growth, and wine volatile traits also differed among irrigation treatments in years with less pronounced water stress. Rootstock consistently influenced vine size and vine balance, with 1103P and 3309C increasing pruning weight and generally lowering Ravaz indices, while yield responses were more vintage dependent. Berry volatile composition was only modestly affected, whereas wine volatile profiles were more strongly shaped by rootstock, particularly for norisoprenoids, esters, and terpenes. Grafted-versus-own-rooted contrasts identified 24 affected variables, but these responses reflect grafting to the evaluated rootstocks rather than graft-union effects alone. Overall, irrigation and rootstock exerted partially distinct but complementary influences, highlighting the importance of integrated water and rootstock management for optimizing hybrid grapevine performance and wine style in humid environments.