In the context of climate change, the need to ensure food security and safety has taken center stage. Chemical fertilizers and pesticides are traditionally used to achieve higher plant productivity and improved plant protection from biotic stresses. However, the widespread use of fertilizers and pesticides has led to significant risks to human health and the environment, which are further compounded by the emissions of greenhouse gases during fertilizer and pesticide production and application, contributing to global warming and climate change. The naturally occurring sulfated linear polysaccharides obtained from edible red seaweeds (Rhodophyta), carrageenans, could offer climate-friendly substitutes for these inputs due to their bi-functional activities. Carrageenans and their derivatives, known as oligo-carrageenans, facilitate plant growth through a multitude of metabolic courses, including chlorophyll metabolism, carbon fixation, photosynthesis, protein synthesis, secondary metabolite generation, and detoxification of reactive oxygen species. In parallel, these compounds suppress pathogens by their direct antimicrobial activities and/or improve plant resilience against pathogens by modulating biochemical changes via salicylate (SA) and/or jasmonate (JA) and ethylene (ET) signaling pathways, resulting in increased production of secondary metabolites, defense-related proteins, and antioxidants. The present review summarizes the usage of carrageenans for increasing plant development and defense responses to pathogenic challenges under climate change. In addition, the current state of knowledge regarding molecular mechanisms and metabolic alterations in plants during carrageenan-stimulated plant growth and plant disease defense responses has been discussed. This evaluation will highlight the potential use of these new biostimulants in increasing agricultural productivity under climate change.

White mold, caused by the fungal pathogen Sclerotinia sclerotiorum (Lib.) de Bary, is a significant biotic stress impacting horticultural and field crops worldwide. This disease causes plants to wilt and ultimately die, resulting in considerable yield losses. This monocyclic disease progresses through a single infection cycle involving basal infections from myceliogenically germinated sclerotia or aerial infections initiated by ascospores from carpogenically germinated sclerotia. The pathogen has a homothallic mating system with a weak population structure. Relatively cool temperatures and extended wetness are typical conditions for spreading the disease. Each stage of infection triggers a cascade of molecular and physiological events that underpin defense responses against S. sclerotiorum. Molecular markers can help rapid diagnosis of this disease in plants. Effective management strategies encompass altering the crop microclimate, applying fungicides, reducing inoculum sources, and developing resistant plant varieties. Integrated approaches combining those strategies often yield the best results. This review discusses the latest insights into the biology, epidemiology, infection mechanisms, and early detection of white mold. This review also aims to provide comprehensive guidelines for sustainable management of this destructive disease while reducing the use of excessive pesticides in crop fields.

Multipurpose trees, like the moringa (Moringa oleifera Lam.), have become extremely popular in an attempt to reduce food, nutritional, and economic instability. The significant benefits of moringa’s leaves, pods, seeds, roots, and flowers are used in a wide range of commercial fields, including medicine, cosmetics, food, animal feed, water purification, and more. We applied a questionnaire-based survey to reveal the uses, problems and solutions related to the knowledge, uses and constraints of moringa in the region of Chapainawabganj and Kushtia districts in Bangladesh. Including the easiest propagation process and the lowest cultivation costs, year-round flowering, and production provide moringa with a wide window of opportunity. Besides using regular pruning of moringa branches, respondents make trees bushy to increase fruit and leaf production. Respondents from both regions opined that moringa has a good market value, increases family income, increases opportunity for fallow land utilization, enhances employment opportunities, and is known as a nutritive and multipurpose tree. We were pleased to find that moringa output regularly exceeded previous production records in Bangladesh from 2014–16 to 2020–21. Furthermore, our survey shows that a 5-year-old moringa tree provides a satisfactory yield per season with its high market price and demand. Despite the extensive use of moringa fruits and leaves by respondents, its commercial potential remains largely undeveloped and unknown to them. Constraints like limited scientific knowledge and technological infrastructure are the reasons why the elusive potential of moringa in Bangladesh persists. There is ample opportunity to enhance moringa production via effective management techniques, which will satisfy community demand and create market opportunities both locally and internationally. As a result, smallholder farmers’ livelihoods and food and nutritional security can be improved.

Extreme temperatures, drought, and salinity are among the most detrimental abiotic stressors limiting global plant productivity, and their frequency has intensified under climate change. These escalating pressures underscore the need for sustainable biological strategies that enhance plant resilience to climate-induced abiotic stresses. Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) have emerged as a promising, eco-friendly solution due to their ability to optimize rhizospheric processes that strengthen plant adaptive capacity. PGPR improve nutrient acquisition, maintain ionic homeostasis, modulate phytohormone signaling, and regulate ethylene levels through ACC deaminase activity. They also stimulate antioxidant defenses, promote osmolyte and exopolysaccharide synthesis, and enhance root system development—key traits that collectively alleviate drought, salinity, and heat stress. Recent research demonstrates that co-inoculation, multi-strain microbial consortia, and synthetic communities designed using multi-omics approaches significantly enhance PGPR stability, colonization, and functional effectiveness under field conditions. Additionally, nanotechnology-enabled formulations and smart delivery systems are emerging as innovative tools to improve PGPR survival and targeted release in harsh environments. This review synthesizes current insights into PGPR-mediated stress mitigation, highlights technological innovations that support their application, and outlines pathways for integrating PGPR into climate-resilient, sustainable agricultural systems to safeguard crop productivity amid escalating environmental stress.

Background: Micronutrients are required in trace amounts, but are importantly associated with plant growth and development. While soil salinity causes a frequent micronutrient deficiency in soil, the condition withholds plant growth, development, and eventually crop production. Since foliar application of micronutrient provides rapid nutrient absorption compared to soil amendments, it may confer straightforward mitigation of salinity stress. However, micronutrients availability to plants under saline conditions has drawn limited attention. Objective: To study the role of four micronutrients namely boron (B), zinc (Zn), chlorine (Cl), and silicon (Si) as well as their combinations as foliar application on growth, development, and yield responses of ‘okra cv. Nulok F1’ in a naturally very slightly salinized soil. Methodology: The research site belongs to Young Meghna Estuarine Flood Plain under the soil of Agro-ecological Zones (AEZ)-18. The area of EC dsm-1 2.39 is used for the cultivation of horticultural and cereal crops. The one-factor experiment was designed in a randomized complete block design with three replications and six treatments. The factor having six different micronutrients and their combinations under saline soil viz. T1 = control (untreated), T2 = 0.2 % B as solubor®, T3 = 0.2 % ZnSO4, T4 = 0.2 % KCl, T5 = 0.2% SiO2, and T6 = 0.2% solubor® B + 0.2% ZnSO4 + 0.2% SiO2 + 0.2% KCl. Result: A number of foliar treatments of micronutrients substantially improved plant height, stem diameter, leaf number, depth of root, fruit length, number of fruits, single fruit weight, yield plot-1, and total yield. Implication: Among the treatments, Si, and a mixture of solubor® B, Zn, Cl, and Si significantly uphold growth and yield-related attributes of okra indicating them as suitable micronutrients for okra production in salt-affected areas. Conclusion: The foliar application of Si and the mixtures of the four aforementioned micronutrients might enhance the growth and yield attributes of ‘okra cv. Nulok F1’ under salinity stress.