Stumpy irrigation water availability is extremely important for sugarcane production in Pakistan today. This issue is rising inversely to river flow due to inadequate water distribution and an uneven rainfall pattern. Sugarcane growth faces a shortage of available water for plant uptake due to the low water–holding capacity of sandy loam soil, particularly under conventional flood irrigation methods. To address this problem, sugarcane clones were evaluated for their agronomic and physiological traits under conditions of low water availability in sandy loam soil. Ten cane genotypes, HSF–240, SPF–213, CPF–249, CP 77–400, S2008–FD–19, S2006–US–469, S2007–AUS–384, S2003–US–633, S2003–US–127, and S2006–US–658, were exposed to four levels of water deficit created through skip irrigations. These deficit levels occurred during the 9th, 11th, 13th, and 16th irrigations at alternate deficit levels between 2020 and 2022. Physiological data were collected during the tillering and grand growth stages (elongation) in response to the water deficit. The sugarcane clones S2006–US–658, S2007–AUS–384, and HSF–240 exhibited resistance to low water availability at both the tillering and grand growth stages. Following them, genotypes S2006–US–658, S2007–AUS–384, and HSF–240 performed better and were also found to be statistically significant. Clones susceptible to water deficit in terms of growth and development were identified as CP 77–400, S2008–FD–19, S2006–US–469, and S2003–US–633. These genotypes showed reduced photosynthetic rate, transpiration rate, stomatal conductance, relative water content, cane yield, and proline content under stressed conditions. Therefore, genotypes S2006–US–658, S2007–AUS–384, and HSF–240 were better performers concerning physiological traits under water deficit and sandy loam soil in both years. Moreover, a significant positive correlation was assessed between agronomic traits and photosynthetic rats. This study highlights that sugarcane can sustain its growth and development even with less irrigation frequency or moisture availability, albeit with certain specific variations.

The purpose of this review was to look into the different ways that heavy metal stress affects spinach, and how hazardous they are to soil, people's health, and plant ecosystems. Heavy metals in soil are caused by anthropogenic and industrial activity, and when they accumulate in food chains, they pose a major risk to human health. This paper presents an overview of heavy metals' negative impacts on soil fertility, plant physiology, and human health. Using spinach as a model plant, it is simple to cultivate and maintain, making it a diverse choice for studying how plants respond to stresses such as heavy metals. They describe how heavy metal stress affects spinach morphology and physiology, including absorption, detoxification, and translocation throughout the plant system. Understanding these procedures is critical when assessing the potential risks associated with the accumulation of hazardous components in spinach's edible parts. This review investigates the impact of heavy metal stress on the nutritional quality and yield of spinach after metal exposure. It is critical to investigate numerous strategies for reducing heavy metal stress in spinach, including soil remediation approaches, phytoremediation capabilities, and genetic procedures aimed to increase plant resistance to metals. The goal of this overview is to shed light on the mechanisms underlying the effects of heavy metals on spinach and to propose strategies to alleviate them, thereby protecting agricultural sustainability and public health (Fig. 1). The figure describes this review and examines the consequences of heavy metal stress on spinach, including how it affects plant physiology, soil fertility, and human health. It also evaluates methods to lessen these impacts, such as soil remediation and genetic modifications

The judicious use of crop input is of prime importance for achieving a considerable output with a low-cost input. A two-year field experimentation was executed to assess the effect of varying polymer-coated single super phosphate (SSP) regimes on the yield and quality of sugarcane under differential water regimes. A two-factor study was executed under a randomized complete block design with a split-plot arrangement. The CPF-249 sugarcane variety was planted during the 2019–2020 period and the 2020–2021 period. The experiment consisted of four levels of polymer-coated SSP, i.e., control, 90, 110, and 130 kg ha⁻¹, and three water regimes, which consisted of a number of irrigations, i.e., 18 irrigations, 15 irrigations, and 12 irrigations. Moreover, the water regimes were kept in the main plot, whereas the polymer-coated supplement was allocated in a subplot and replicated thrice. The data on the yield components and sugar-related traits were recorded during both years of study, and the treatment means were differentiated using an LSD test at a 95% confidence interval. Summating the findings of this study, a significant variation was revealed under the subject levels of both factors. Statistically, a 110 kg ha⁻¹ polymer-coated SSP dose, along with 18 irrigations, declared the highest millable canes, stripped cane yield, and unstripped cane yield, followed by the 130 kg ha⁻¹ treatment. Additionally, the highest pol% and cane sugar recovery % were recorded under 12 irrigations along with 130 kg ha⁻¹ during both years. Similarly, the °Brix value was also significantly affected by 12 irrigations when 110 kg ha⁻¹ of polymer-coated SSP was used. The unstripped cane yield had a strong positive correlation with the stripped cane yield, millable canes, and the number of internodes. Moreover, the commercial cane sugar % resulted in a strong positive correlation with the pol%, whereas the cane sugar recovery % revealed a strong positive correlation with the pol% and commercial cane sugar %.

Climate variability is a major challenge concerning food security; therefore, there is a need for pragmatic solutions to improve agricultural production. Henceforth, this study was planned to optimize the planting time of exotic safflowers under the prevailing conditions in Faisalabad, Pakistan. A study was executed by employing a split-plot design with six safflower accessions and five sowing dates ranging from 31 October 2019 to 31 December 2019. The results of the experimental safflower accession PI-198990 produced significant seed yields (2432 kg ha⁻¹, 2772 kg ha⁻¹ and 2366 kg ha⁻¹) when sown on 30 November 2019, 15 December 2019, and 31 December 2019, respectively. On the other hand, on 31 October 2019 and 30 November 2019, sown safflower accessions PI-208677 and PI-250187 were the best performers, respectively. However, a higher achene oil percentage (31.5% and 30.8%) was noted in accessions PI-250187 and PI-314650 when sown on 31 December 2019 and 15 December 2019, respectively. The highest oleic acid content (22.92% and 22.83%) was determined in accession PI-314650 when planted on 30 November 2019 and 15 December 2019, respectively, whereas a higher linoleic acid content was observed on 31 October 2019 and 30 November 2019. Stability analysis showed that safflower accession PI-210834 was the most stable under all sowing environments, followed by PI-314650. Correlation analysis showed that oil percentage showed a negative correlation with phenological traits and growing degree days, and oil yield showed a strong positive relationship with heads, seed yield, biological yield, thousand seed weight, and harvest index.

Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) is one of the edible oilseeds crops which is neglected due to its spiny nature that poses difficulties in field operations; however, this problem can be sorted out by introducing non-spiny safflower cultivars. Hence, a 2-year study (2020–2021 and 2021–2022) was planned to assess the production potential of spiny (5 accessions) and non-spiny (5 accessions) safflower germplasm and an experiment was laid out using randomized completed block design (RCBD) under semiarid conditions of Faisalabad (Pakistan). Agronomic and oil traits were targeted during study. In 2021, non-spiny safflower accession PI-198990 gave the highest seed yield and oil percentage as compared to spiny safflower. However, the highest linoleic concentration was noted in spiny PI-199829 accession whereas the greatest oleic acid percentage was determined in non-spiny PI-235660 accession. Principal component analysis unveiled two components accounting for 39.5% and 25.7% of total variation. Biplot graph indicated that seed oil content, seed yield and 1000-seed weight had the highest correlation in the 2^nd group while in the 3^rd group plant height, days to maturity and oleic acid were correlated. These targeted characters can be considered as suitable index for selection of safflower elite accessions for semi-arid conditions. In general, non-spiny safflower accession responded 19%, 4.3%,10.7%, 21.6%, 6.2% and 77.9% greater in plant height, number of branches, number of heads (capitula), 1000-seed weight, seed yield and oleic acid respectively. From the data of this 2-year studies, we concluded that spiny safflower accessions exhibited 1.2% and 16.3% more oil and linoleic acid content respectively.