How crop biodiversity adapts to drought conditions and enhances grain yield became the most important issue facing agronomists and plant breeders at the turn of the century. Variations in genetic response, inadequacy of nutrients in the soil, and insufficient access to nutrients are factors that aggravate drought stressors. The development of screening tools for identifying drought tolerance is important in the deployment of durum wheat varieties suited to drought-prone environments. An experiment was conducted to evaluate durum wheat varieties under a range of nutrient supplies in naturally imposed drought conditions. The treatments consisting of two nitrogen regimes (i.e., control and 60 kg ha⁻¹), four durum wheat varieties, and three types of nutrients (control, sulfur, and zinc) that were arranged in a split-split plot design with three replications. Both foliar-based sulfur and zinc fertilization were employed at the flag leaf stage, at a rate of 4 and 3-L ha⁻¹, respectively. The results showed a significant (p < 0.05) genetic variation in chlorophyll concentration, grain protein content, tillering potential, and leaf area index. Varieties that contained better leaf chlorophyll content had improved grain yield by about 8.33% under 60 kg/ha nitrogen. A combined application of nitrogen and zinc at flag leaf stage significantly improved grain yield of Duragold by about 21.3%. Leaf chlorophyll content was found to be a more important trait than spikes per m² to discriminate durum wheat varieties. Foliar application of sulfur increased the grain yield of drought-stressed plants by about 12.23%. Grain yield and protein content were strongly correlated with late-season SPAD readings. Significant (p < 0.05) correlation coefficients were obtained between normalized difference vegetation index, leaf area index, grain yield, and protein content with late-season chlorophyll content, revealing the importance of chlorophyll content in studying and identifying drought-tolerant varieties.

Maize plays a significant global role as a food source, feed, and as a raw material in industry. However, it is affected by toxin-producing fungi, mainly Fusarium graminearum, Fusarium verticillioides, and Aspergillus flavus, which compromise its quality. This study, conducted in 2022 and 2023 at the Látókép long-term research site of the University of Debrecen, Hungary, investigated the effects of different nitrogen fertilization rates (0, 90 and 150 Kgha⁻¹ N) on mycotoxin contamination (DON vs. FB vs. AFB1) in the kernels of three (3) maize hybrids: DKC4590 (tolerant), GKT376 (sensitive), and P9610 (undefined). The results showed a significant (p = 0.05) influence of nitrogen fertilization and maize genotype on mycotoxin levels. Sole nitrogen impacts were complex and did not define a clear trend, contrary to the hybrids selected, which followed superiority to resistance. Increased nitrogen fertilization was associated with higher DON production, while hybrid selection demonstrated a clearer trend in resistance to mycotoxins. Therefore, to maximize yield and minimize mycotoxin contamination, future research should focus on optimizing nitrogen application rates and breeding for resistance to balance yield and mycotoxin management. These results suggest that while nitrogen fertilization is crucial for maximizing yield, selecting less susceptible maize hybrids remains vital for minimizing mycotoxin contamination.

Global crop production is currently greatly affected by climate variability and land degradation, compromising global food security. Maize is a crucial global crop used for food, feed, and industrial purposes. Abiotic stresses such as drought and soil fertility hamper maize productivity. Fertilisation is a method to optimise nutrient availability and address deficiencies for optimal crop growth. Nitrogen (N) is essential for grain crop growth and productivity and is a major limiting factor in their production. Nitrogen fertiliser influences the growth of maize plants by affecting the development and maintenance of leaf area and their photosynthetic capacity (Geith et al. 2022). This, in turn, directly affects the yield and quality of the grain produced by crop plants (Gao et al. 2020). The grain-yielding capability of maize depends on the crop's capacity to assimilate CO 2 (Correia et al. 2021).

This systematic review critically evaluates and synthesizes current evidence on the efficacy of biostimulants in enhancing soybean seed yield and quality. A comprehensive literature search was conducted following the PRISMA approach using the Web of Science (WoS) database, focusing on peer-reviewed studies from 2014 to 2025 reporting on the effects of biostimulants applied alone or in combination with other agro-inputs on soybean performance. Over 500 publications were retrieved from the database, of which 72 were included in this review. Extracted data were used to calculate changes in yield (kg ha⁻¹), percentage yield increase (%), oil content (%), and protein concentration (%). Our synthesis demonstrated that the sole application of biostimulants, including seaweed extracts, humic acids, amino acids, and beneficial microbes (Bradyrhizobium, PGPR, AMF), consistently enhanced soybean yield by 4% to 65%, while their interaction with other agro-inputs was shown to be capable of increasing yield by more than 150% under abiotic stress conditions, indicating strong synergistic effects. These improvements are mediated through various physiological mechanisms such as enhanced nutrient uptake, improved root growth, increased photosynthetic efficiency, and elevated stress tolerance. Furthermore, biostimulant application positively affects seed quality, increasing oil and protein content by 0.4–5.5% and 0.5–7.3%, respectively, by optimizing source–sink relationships and metabolic pathways. Overall, the greatest benefits are frequently observed through synergistic combinations of biostimulants with one another or with reduced rates of mineral fertilizers, highlighting a promising pathway toward sustainable crop intensification in soybean systems.

Although Hungary and Tanzania's climatic, soil, and technological conditions differ significantly in crop production, cereals crop cultivation is of paramount importance; maize crop dominates the cultivated area (Hungary 1 million ha, Tanzania 3 million ha) both from a feed and food point of view. Unfortunately, in both countries, fungal species (Fusaria, Aspergilli, Penicillia, etc.) that produce various mycotoxins on cereals, including maize grains, are a growing concern. The situation is complicated because these fungal species and their toxins can appear not only on cereals but also on other crops. Despite the prevalence of mycotoxins in both countries, studies show higher exposure risks and contamination above tolerable levels for human consumption in Tanzania to Hungary, with Tanzania observing acute aflatoxicosis.