Over the decades, agri-food security has become one of the most critical concerns in the world. Sustainable agri-food production technologies have been reliable in mitigating poverty caused by high demands for food. Recently, the applications of agri-food system technologies have been meaningfully changing the worldwide scene due to both external strengths and internal forces. Digital agriculture (DA) is a pioneering technology helping to meet the growing global demand for sustainable food production. Integrating different sub-branches of DA technologies such as artificial intelligence, automation and robotics, sensors, Internet of Things (IoT) and data analytics into agriculture practices to reduce waste, optimize farming inputs and enhance crop production. This can help shift from tedious operations to continuously automated processes, resulting in increasing agricultural production by enabling the traceability of products and processes. The application of DA provides agri-food producers with accurate and real-time observations regarding different features influencing their productivity, such as plant health, soil quality, weather conditions, and pest and disease pressure. Analyzing the results achieved by DA can help agricultural producers and scholars make better decisions to increase yields, improve efficiency, reduce costs, and manage resources. The core focus of the current work is to clarify the benefits of some sub-branches of DA in increasing agricultural production efficiency, discuss the challenges of practical DA in the field, and highlight the future perspectives of DA. This review paper can open new directions to speed up the DA application on the farm and link traditional agriculture with modern farming technologies.

Vegetative propagation techniques such as grafting can be used, in conjunction with field studies, to decouple the relative effects of age and size on tree metabolism and growth. Despite interest in this approach, little attention has been paid to the best metrics for assessing the growth performance of grafted plants over time. Based on an analysis of the grafting literature and our own data, we show that the choice of metrics to assess tree growth can entirely change the conclusions reached about the relative importance of age versus size. We recommend that absolute as well as relative rates of growth are calculated and that scion size be standardized as much as possible at the start of the experiment. Once proper metrics are chosen, all of the available published evidence is largely concordant with two concepts: (1) age-mediated controls of tree growth are likely to be important during the first few years of a tree's life (before phase change); and (2) after the first few years of a tree's life, size-mediated factors largely prevail over age-mediated factors in determining tree growth rates. We found no support for theories invoking age-mediated sink limitations in old trees.

The COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the more general global increase in viral diseases, has led researchers to look to the plant kingdom as a potential source for antiviral compounds. Since ancient times, herbal medicines have been extensively applied in the treatment and prevention of various infectious diseases in different traditional systems. The purpose of this review is to highlight the potential antiviral activity of plant compounds as effective and reliable agents against viral infections, especially by viruses from the coronavirus group. Various antiviral mechanisms shown by crude plant extracts and plant-derived bioactive compounds are discussed. The understanding of the action mechanisms of complex plant extract and isolated plant-derived compounds will help pave the way towards the combat of this life-threatening disease. Further, molecular docking studies, in silico analyses of extracted compounds, and future prospects are included. The in vitro production of antiviral chemical compounds from plants using molecular pharming is also considered. Notably, hairy root cultures represent a promising and sustainable way to obtain a range of biologically active compounds that may be applied in the development of novel antiviral agents.

Cancer is a condition in which cells grow uncontrollably and may metastasis to other parts of the body. Despite the recent advances in synthesising new anticancer agents, plant-derived compounds are traditionally considered as the primary health care approaches in some parts of the world. Eucalyptus-derived essential oils are the rich resources of active phytochemicals, which have been used for treating or preventing different ailments. However, there is less literature addressing the bioactivity of Eucalyptus-derived phytochemicals in the treatment of cancers. In this review paper, we summarised the existing evidence on the wide-spectrum activity of Eucalyptus-derived essential oil against malignancies. Our review highlighted that Eucalyptus-derived essential oil contains a wide variety of secondary metabolites, and thus capable of slowing or inhibiting the cancerous cell lines in vitro and in vivo conditions. We also summarized the achievement in the anti-tumour activity of nanoparticles, the application of plant-based essential oils in food safety, and the application of green extraction technologies. It can be concluded that Eucalyptus has immense potential to cure malignancies, and such information can be used in further studies. Notwithstanding the advantages, Eucalyptus-derived essential oils can be poisonous; therefore, more evidence is still required to confirm the efficacy of Eucalyptus-derived essential oil.

Problem statement: The chemical pollution of soil has become a major source of concern and has posed serious health problems within the last few years in many developed nations. A variety of organic and inorganic pollutants, including heavy metals, are being mixed in with the cultivated soil and water. Sewage sludge was one of the major sources of enrichment of heavy metals. These pollutants are eventually transported to the natural vegetation and cultivated crops and concentrated in food chains, with possible detrimental effects on human health and wild-life. Thus, soil contaminants need to be cleaned up to improve environmental safety. Approach: Research was conducted to elucidate the potential of Jatropha curcas L. to clean toxic heavy metals derived from sewage sludge. J. curcas seedlings were planted on six different planting media T0 (100% soil-control), T1 (80% soil and 20% sewage sludge), T2 (60% soil and 40% sewage sludge), T3 (40% soil and 60% sewage sludge), T4 (20% soil and 80% sewage sludge) and T5 (100% sewage sludge) for a period of three months. The growth performance, including height and diameter, of J. curcas was measured using diameter tape, while the basal diameter was measured using a venier caliper every two weeks. Plant samples were collected after harvest and soil samples were collected before and after planting. The ICP-MS was used to determine the concentration of heavy metals in the planting medium and plant parts. Results: According to the growth parameters, the composition of 60% sewage sludge mixed with 40% soil was suitable for achieving optimum J. curcas growth. This plant was able to remove heavy metals (Zn, Pb, Cr, Cd and Cu) effectively from the medium containing 100% sewage sludge and after harvesting, the concentrations of Zn, Pb, Cr, Cd and Cu in T5(100% sewage sludge medium) were decreased by 67.7, 78.3, 77.2, 78.5 and 75.0%, respectively from the initial values. The highest levels of Zn (29.5 mg kg-1), Cu (0.44 mg kg-1) and Cd (8.35 mg kg-1) accumulation were found in the roots, whereas the highest Pb and Cr concentrations were observed in the leaves and stem, respectively. Conclusion/Recommendations: The roots of J. curcas were found to be suitable for the uptake of heavy metals in sewage sludge, especially Zn. Cr was also adsorbed effectively by the leaves. Thus, J. curcas was a suitable plant to use as a phytoremediator to clean heavy metals, in particular Zn, Cu and Cr. However, a study determining, the short term effects of the large scale use of sewage sludge on trees /-field crops/-leafy vegetables and environmental its impact needs to be carried out