Sufficient production, consistent food supply, and environmental protection in urban +settings are major global concerns for future sustainable cities. Currently, sustainable food supply is under intense pressure due to exponential population growth, expanding urban dwellings, climate change, and limited natural resources. The recent novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic crisis has impacted sustainable fresh food supply, and has disrupted the food supply chain and prices significantly. Under these circumstances, urban horticulture and crop cultivation have emerged as potential ways to expand to new locations through urban green infrastructure. Therefore, the objective of this study is to review the salient features of contemporary urban horticulture, in addition to illustrating traditional and innovative developments occurring in urban environments. Current urban cropping systems, such as home gardening, community gardens, edible landscape, and indoor planting systems, can be enhanced with new techniques, such as vertical gardening, hydroponics, aeroponics, aquaponics, and rooftop gardening. These modern techniques are ecofriendly, energy- saving, and promise food security through steady supplies of fresh fruits and vegetables to urban neighborhoods. There is a need, in this modern era, to integrate information technology tools in urban horticulture, which could help in maintaining consistent food supply during (and after) a pandemic, as well as make agriculture more sustainable.

To overcome food security, sustainable strategies for reclamation and the subsequent utilization of salt-affected soils for crop production are needed. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the impacts of compost and biochar addition on the growth and fruit quality of tomato under salinity stress. For this purpose, the soil was spiked with analytical grade sodium chloride to achieve a 6 dS m⁻¹ salinity level for a pot experiment. After 30 days of spiking, the compost (2%) and biochar (2%) were added in selected pots. After the seedling transplant, recommended doses of NPK were added to fulfill nutrient requirements of tomato plants. Plants were harvested after 90 days of seedling transplantation. Results revealed that the salinity caused a significant reduction of 28.4% in SPAD value, 23.5% in Ft, 22.6% in MSI, 12.1% in RWC, 18.3% in Chl. a, 13.7% in Chl. b, and 16.5% in T. Chl. as compared to the un-amended non-saline control in physiological attributes of tomato plants. Similarly, a significant decrease of 26.9–44.1% was obtained in growth attributes of tomato as compared to the non-saline control. However, in saline soil, the addition of biochar and compost (alone or together) demonstrated a significant improvement in plant growth (i.e., up 45%) over the respective un-amended control. Moreover, the combined application of compost and biochar significantly reduced the sodium (Na⁺) in shoots and roots of tomato plants by 40% and 47%, respectively, over the respective control. Our findings suggest that the combined application of biochar and compost could be useful to reduce salinity, alleviate salinity-induced phytotoxicity, and subsequently improve plant growth and productivity in salt-affected soil.

The experiment was carried out on mango cv. Dusehri to investigate the effect of N, P and K fertilizers on vegetative, reproductive growth, yield and fruit quality. Eight different fertilizer combinations such as T1 (control), T2 (N), T3 (P), T4 (K), T5 (NP), T6 (NK), T7 (PK) and T8 (NPK) were used. Individual or combine fertilizer application of N (1000 g), P (750 g) and K (750 g) were applied during growing season in February and August. All the treatments significantly influenced on vegetative growth, flowering, fruiting, yield and other physiochemical attributes of mango as compared to control. Least effect was observed with individual fertilizer application while combine fertilizer treatments enhanced most of the investigated parameters. Especially, qualitative traits showed non-significant differences between treated and untreated mango trees. However, among the different treatments T8 (NPK) showed significance for fruiting aspects such as maximum size of growth flushes (177.51 mm), total number of panicles/tree (845), total number of flowers/panicle (974), sex ratio (69.18%), fruit retention (13.85%), total number of fruits/tree (379), yield (82 kg/tree), fruit weight (197.5 g), pulp weight (135.5 g) and physiochemical parameters namely TSS (24.53), Vit. C (57.63 mg/100 mL) and total sugar (20.84%). In general, combine application of NPK (T8) were the most effective in enhancing fruiting aspects, yield, physiochemical characteristics as well as improved fruit quality of mango trees.

An oxygen insensitive azoreductase was purified from a novel bacterial strain (Staphylococcus sp. KU898286) that was isolated from an abandoned site of the textile waste discharge unit. The isolated enzyme had efficiently cleaved the azo-bonds through reductive transformation under aerobic conditions. Initial phenotypic characterization and final construction of phylogenetic tree on the basis of 16s rDNA demonstrated 99% resemblance of the isolate to Staphylococcus aureus. The purified azoreductase was found to have a broad spectrum activity that reduced RR241 at a concentration of 50mg/L with pH between 6–8 and 30°C temperature). Besides, the reactive red 241 (RR241) was reduced at extracellular level as well as NADH dependent intracellular level. Complete reduction/ decolourization of RR241 were achieved after 18 hrs of exposure. The final degradation product observed to be 2-nephthol was purified by High Pressure Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and the molecular mass was computed by Gas Chromatography-Mass spectroscopy (GC-MS). The study revealed a cost effective and eco-friendly approach to degrade the toxic dyes into less toxic products by Staphylococcus sp. KU898286.

The present study was undertaken with aims to produced catalyst loaded on low-cost clay supports and to utilize plum waste seed oil for the production of biodiesel. For this purpose, Bentonite–potassium ferricyanide, White pocha-potassium ferricyanide, Granite-potassium ferricyanide, Sindh clay-potassium ferricyanide, and Kolten-potassium ferricyanide composites were prepared. Transesterification of plum oil under the different conditions of reactions like catalysts concentrations (0.15, 0.3 and 0.6 g), temperature (50, 60, 70 and 80 °C), reaction time (2, 4 and 6 h) and oil to methanol ratio (1:10) was conducted. The maximum biodiesel yield was recorded for Bentonite–potassium ferricyanide composite. This composite was subjected to calcination process to produce Calcinized bentonite–potassium ferricyanide composite and a further improvement in biodiesel amount was recorded. The fuel quality parameters of all biodiesel samples were in standard range. Gas chromatographic mass spectrometric analysis confirmed the presence of oleic and linoleic acids in the plum seed oil. The characterization of composite was done using FTIR, SEM and EDX. Two infrared bands are observed in the spectrum from 1650 to 1630 cm⁻¹ indicates that the composite materials contained highly hydrogen bonded water. The presence of surface hydroxyls groups can also be confirmed from FTIR data. SEM image clearly show the presence of nano-rods on the surface of Granite-potassium ferricyanide and Kolten-potassium ferricyanide composites. Another interesting observation that can be recorded from SEM images is the changes in surface characteristic of Bentonite–potassium ferricyanide composite after calcination (at 750 °C, 1 atm for 4 h). Calcinized bentonite–potassium ferricyanide composite found to contain more nano rod like structures at its surface as compared to Bentonite–potassium ferricyanide composite which contained spherical particles. EDX data of Bentonite–potassium ferricyanide composite and Calcinized bentonite–potassium ferricyanide composite show that after calcination carbon and oxygen was reduced. The other lost volatile compounds after calcination were of Na, Mg, Al, Si, and S. The XRD spectrum of pure bentonite showed the average crystal size of 24.46 nm and calcinized bentonite of 25.59 nm. The average crystal size of bentonite and potassium ferricyanide composite and its calcinized form was around 33.76 nm and 41.05 nm, respectively.

Grapes (Vitis vinifera L.) are highly valuable crops enriched with minerals, vitamins, phenolics, and antioxidants required for daily human activities and to prevent cancer and cardiovascular diseases. The objective of this study was to elucidate the physicochemical and mineral evaluation of seven neglected local grape cultivars (‘Kishmish’, ‘Sra Kishmish’, ‘Askari’, ‘Sahibi’, ‘Haita’, ‘Sundar Khani’ and ‘Toran’) growing in Baluchistan, as it can help in future breeding, processing, and species conservation. Therefore, these cultivars were evaluated for different physical, biochemical, and availability of macro– and micro–mineral contents. In physical evaluation, the local cultivar ‘Haita’ showed maximum bunch length (19.72 cm) and bunch width (11.88 cm), while the highest bunch weight (527.33 g) was recorded in ‘Sahibi’. Similarly, significant differences were noted in biochemical traits, and maximum total soluble solids (24.76%) and titratable acidity (1.58%) were observed in ‘Sundar Khani’, while the highest vitamin C (26.17 mg 100 g–1), total sugars (30.26%) in Sundar Khani, and nonreducing sugars (8.79%) were recorded in ‘Haita’. The cultivars growing in Balochistan also showed variations in phenolics (113.79–346.50 mg GAE L–1) and antioxidants (85.77– 90.87%). Likewise, the concentrations of macro- and microelements were also highly variable in these cultivars. Overall, among these cultivars, ‘Toran’ performed better in the agroclimatic conditions of Balochistan, as it has high yield attributes such as berry length, width, and weight. Moreover, it was also enriched with total soluble solids, antioxidants, and calcium contents.