A major challenge of the Sustainable Development Goals linked to Agriculture, Food Security, and Nutrition, under the current global crop production paradigm, is that increasing crop yields often have negative environmental impacts. It is therefore urgent to develop and adopt optimal soil-improving cropping systems (SICS) that can allow us to decouple these system parameters. Soil salinization is a major environmental hazard that limits agricultural potential and is closely linked to agricultural mismanagement and water resources overexploitation, especially in arid climates. Here we review literature seeking to ameliorate the negative effect of soil salinization on crop productivity and conduct a global meta-analysis of 128 paired soil quality and yield observations from 30 studies. In this regard, we compared the effectivity of different SICS that aim to cope with soil salinization across 11 countries, in order to reveal those that are the most promising. The analysis shows that besides case-specific optimization of irrigation and drainage management, combinations of soil amendments, conditioners, and residue management can contribute to significant reductions of soil salinity while significantly increasing crop yields. These results highlight that conservation agriculture can also achieve the higher yields required for upscaling and sustaining crop production.

• Background and Aims Andromonoecy, as a breeding system, has generated a considerable body of theory in terms of sexual selection, but extended records comparing the performance of pollen grains from staminate versus hermaphrodite flowers are still sparse. The objective in this study was to elucidate the role of staminate flowers in the andromonoecious breeding system of olive (Olea europaea). • Methods To determine the meaning of staminate flowers, an evaluation was made of resource allocation to, and phenology of, staminate and hermaphrodite flowers in the cultivar ‘Mission’, and a comparison was made of the male function between both kinds of flowers. • Key Results Dry weight of hermaphrodite flowers was 19 % greater than dry weight of staminate flowers arising in comparable positions of the panicle. This difference was mainly due to pistil and petal weight; there were no significant differences in stamen weight. There were no significant differences between staminate and hermaphrodite flowers in either amount of pollen per anther, or pollen quality as determined by pollen viability, germinability or ability to fertilize other flowers. There was no significant link between gender and time of anthesis. However, position of the flower within the panicle correlated with time of anthesis and gender. Flowers at the apex and at primary pedicels tended to be hermaphrodite and open earlier, whereas flowers arising in secondary pedicels were mainly staminate and were commonly the last to reach anthesis. • Conclusions It is proposed that the main advantage provided by production of staminate flowers in olive is to enhance male fitness by increasing pollen output at the whole plant level, although a relict function of attracting pollinators cannot be completely discarded.

In this work we establish theoretical daily pollen variation grains for the 24 taxa most frequently occurring in the atmosphere of Córdoba (Spain) during three consecutive years, namely Alnus glutinosa, Broussonetia papyrifera, Casuarina equisetifolia, Chenopodiaceae, Amaranthaceae, Cupressaceae, Cyperaceae, Ericaceae, Fraxinus, Gramineae, Mercurialis, Morus, Myrtaceae, Olea europaea, Palmae, Pinaceae, Pistacia, Plantago, Platanus hybrida, Populus, Quercus, Rumex, Typha domingensis, Ulmus minor and Urticaceae. Sampling was carried out using a Burkard spore-trap and the data collected were used to establish theoretical patterns of daily variation represented by an ideal day with accounts for the daily behaviour of each taxon. The application of centred-data analysis (CDA) allowed two groups of taxa to be established, namely (a) those with a homogeneous variation pattern and small differences between the times of maximum and minimum occurrence, and (b) those with a heterogeneous variation pattern arising from large differences between maxima and minima or from a rather erratic variation. As a rule, maximum pollen concentrations were found to coincide with the times of maximum sunlight and temperature.

SUMMARY The effects of temperature on the progamic phase, fertilization and initial fruit set in cross pollinated olives were studied to determine the reasons for poor fruit set when high temperatures occur during the bloom period. Fruit set in ‘Manzanillo’ olive was completely inhibited at 30°C constant temperature. This temperature significantly reduced pollen germination but did not prevent pollen tube growth. Ovule penetration by the pollen tube was observed in 47% of the flowers at 30°C; however, the lack of growth of both functional ovules and ovaries suggests problems in zygote formation or endosperm development. The most favourable temperature was 25°C, in which faster pollen tube growth, more and earlier fertilization, and more fruit set occurred. At 20°C pollen tube growth was slower, resulting in delayed and reduced fertilization.

Most Spanish olive orchards are monovarietal as a result of the farmer's belief that the species does not require cross-pollination. Paradoxically, accumulated evidence from controlled experiments demonstrates that olive is partially self-incompatible and that cross-pollination increases yield and fruit quality in this wind-pollinated crop. With the aim of assessing cross-pollination deficit in large plots of the most widespread olive oil cultivar in Spain, fruit set was compared in two solid orchards of ‘Picual’ in response to self-, open-, and artificial cross-pollination. In both orchards, ‘Picual’ behaved as a self-incompatible cultivar with reduced fruit set under self-pollination (index of self-incompatibility = 0.21). However, cross-pollination rarely increased fruit set in comparison with open-pollination. Bagging experiments demonstrated that open-pollination provided enough cross-pollen to induce high levels of fruit set. The increase in fruit set in response to mechanical application of cross-pollen was limited to the trees directly receiving the pollen flow and only in one orchard. Consistently, airborne pollen concentration after a single terrestrial application significantly fits a decay curve with a short dispersal. In contrast with the limited dispersal of single mechanical applications, open-pollination results suggest that trees from plantations at least 250 to 500 m away are acting as unsuspected pollenizers. This is probably taking place to some extent in most traditional olive districts in Spain, and it explains why farmers have never demanded pollination designs in this crop. Modern homogeneous plantations can, however, change this situation dramatically and give rise to pollination deficits.