Rice, generally classified as a typical glycophyte, often faces abiotic stresses such as excessive drought, high salinity, prolonged submergence, cold, and temperature, which significantly affects growth, development, and ultimately, grain yield. Among these negative impacts of abiotic factors in rice production, salinity stress is a major constraint, followed by drought. There is considerable research on the use of marker-assisted selection (MAS), genome editing techniques, and transgenic studies that have profoundly improved the present-day rice breeders’ toolboxes for developing salt-tolerant varieties. Salinity stresses significantly affect rice plants during seedling and reproductive stages. Hence, greater understanding and manipulation of genetic architecture in developing salt-tolerant rice varieties will significantly impact sustainable rice production. Rice plants’ susceptibility or tolerance to high salinity has been reported to be the result of coordinated actions of multiple stress-responsive quantitative trait loci (QTLs)/genes. This paper reviews recent literature, updating the effects of salinity stress on rice plants and germplasm collections and screening for salinity tolerance by different breeding techniques. Mapping and identification of QTLs salt tolerance genes are illuminated. The present review updates recent breeding for improvement in rice tolerance to salinity stress and how state-of-the-art tools such as MAS or genetic engineering and genome editing techniques, including mutagenesis and conventional breeding techniques, can assist in transferring salt-tolerant QTLs genes into elite rice genotypes, accelerating breeding of salt-resistant rice cultivars.

Chili anthracnose is one of the most devastating fungal diseases affecting the quality and yield production of chili. The aim of this review is to summarize the current knowledge concerning the chili anthracnose disease, as well as to explore the use of marker-assisted breeding programs aimed at improving anthracnose disease resistance in this species. This disease is caused by the Colletotrichum species complex, and there have been ongoing screening methods of chili pepper genotypes with resistance to anthracnose in the field, as well as in laboratories. Conventional breeding involves phenotypic selection in the field, and it is more time-consuming compared to molecular breeding. The use of marker-assisted selection (MAS) on the basis of inheritance, the segregation ratio of resistance to susceptibility, and the gene-controlling resistance may contribute to the development of an improved chili variety and speed up the selection process, while also reducing genetic drag in the segregating population. More importantly, by using molecular markers, the linkage groups are determined dominantly and co-dominantly, meaning that the implementation of a reliable method to produce resistant varieties is crucial in future breeding programs. This updated information will offer a supportive direction for chili breeders to develop an anthracnose-resistant chili variety.

Abiotic and biotic stresses adversely affect rice growth, development and grain yield. Traditional rice breeding techniques are insufficient in modern agriculture to meet the growing population’s food needs on a long-term basis. The development of DNA markers closely linked to target genes or QTLs on rice chromosomes, and advanced molecular techniques, such as marker-assisted selection (MAS), have encouraged the evolution of contemporary techniques in rice genetics and breeding, such as gene pyramiding. Gene pyramiding refers to the act of combining two or more genes from multiple parents into a single genotype, which allows the overexpression of more than one gene for broad-spectrum abiotic and biotic stress resistance. Marker-assisted pedigree, backcrossing and pseudo-backcrossing methods can increase the conventional breeding speed by reducing the number of breeding generations in order to enhance the pyramiding process. Pyramiding is affected by several factors: the number of transferred genes; the range within gene and flanking markers; the number of chosen populations in every breeding generation; the features of genes and germplasms; and the potentiality of breeders to identify the target genes. Modern breeding methods, such as the marker-assisted backcrossing approach, have made gene pyramiding more precise and reliable for the development of stress-tolerant rice varieties in the coming decades. This review presents up-to-date knowledge on gene pyramiding schemes, marker-assisted gene pyramiding techniques, the efficiency of marker-assisted gene pyramiding and the advantages and limitations of gene pyramiding methods. This review also reports on the potential application of marker-assisted selection breeding to develop stress-tolerant rice varieties that stabilize abiotic and biotic stresses. This review will help rice breeders to improve yields by increasing rice productivity under abiotic and biotic stress conditions.

Global demand for food has always been on the increase due to the increase of the population in this world. Intercropping is one of the alternatives of agronomic practices that is widely practiced in ensuring food security and enhancing yield stability. Strip, mixed, and relay intercropping can be practiced to increase crop production. In addition to achieving a successful intercropping system, factors such as suitable crops, time of sowing, maturity of the crop, and plant density need to be considered before and during planting. Besides, practiced intercropping becomes a useful cropping system to increase efficient resource utilization, enhance biodiversity, promote soil health, enhance soil fertility, erosion control, yield advantage, weed, pest, and disease control, insurance against crop failure, ecosystem and modification of microclimate, market instability, and increase farmers income. Crop productivity in any types of cropping system implemented relies primarily on the interception of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) of crop canopy and conversion of intercepted radiation into biomass or known as radiation use efficiency (RUE). Both PAR and RUE are important measurements that have significant roles in crop growth and development in which the accessibility of these radiation dynamics is connected with the leaf area index and crop canopy characteristics in maximizing yield as well as total productivity of the crop component in intercropping systems.

Agricultural waste is a type of solid waste that needs to be managed properly. Organic waste can be recycled to produce bokashi fertilizer, which can be used to improve soil health, increase crop production, and sanitize the environment. However, it may contain heavy metals that could be toxic to plants and can pollute the environment if not properly decomposed. This study was designed to evaluate the fertilizer quality of six different bokashi fertilizer ratios (bfrs) over seven- and thirty-day maturation periods. The raw materials used include horse bedding waste (HBW), cow dung (CD), and paddy husk charcoal (PHC) in different ratios, treated with an effective microorganisms (EM₄) solution. All the nutrients studied (N, P, K, Mg, and Ca) were significantly affected by the bokashi fertilizer ratios (bfrs). The best bokashi fertilizer ratio was bokashi fertilizer ratio-6 (bfr6), but it was statistically similar to bokashi fertilizer ratio-5 (bfr5). Its N, P, K, Mg, and Ca contents were higher than the control (bfr1) by 133.9%, 225.5%, 196.4%, 105.0%, and 84.7%, respectively. Similarly, all these nutrients were significantly affected by time. N, P, K, and Mg increased by 21.2, 33.0%, 16.4%, and 28.8%, respectively, after 30 days of maturation, with a decrease in Ca only 2.4%, which was not significant A germination index (GI) of 90.1% was obtained using cabbage seeds. The heavy metals result and germination bioassay confirmed the safety and maturity of the bokashi fertilizer. In conclusion, the results revealed that good-quality bokashi fertilizer can be produced within 30 days. Bfrr5 and bfr6 are equally good candidates for producing good-quality bokashi fertilizer for effective crop growth.

The lablab bean or ‘Kacang sepat’ is a food crop originating from India and is commonly found in tropical areas such as Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines due to its adaptability. However, in Malaysia, lablab is grown as a backyard crop, and the area cultivated with this crop is still limited. Lablab has the potential to become a commercial vegetable crop in Malaysia due to its high protein content (18–25%). Therefore, to increase lablab cultivation, good quality seeds are a prerequisite. A key factor in the production of quality seeds is the ideal harvest time of the pods during seed development and maturation and based on identifiable characteristics. The first part of this study was conducted to assess the physical characteristics of lablab pods and seeds of the cultivar Highworth (MDI 12842). Plants were grown using standard cultural practices. Pods and seeds were collected at ten different maturity stages (5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, and 50 days after anthesis (DAA)). Pods and seeds showed a significant difference in size and colour at different maturity stages. Seeds harvested at 20 DAA had maximum pod and seed size. The seeds attained physiological maturity (PM) at 30 DAA when the pod colour is light reddish brown and, after being subjected to sun and oven drying, gave maximum germination percentages of 89% and 91%, respectively, while fresh seeds had only 78% germination. Results indicated that the germination percentage of lablab improved, regardless of the drying method used. Therefore, the lablab bean pod colour is a suitable indicator to be used as an easy method for the identification of the best time for pod harvesting for seed production.