Sustainable food production is becoming essential, and a shift from traditional practices to more responsible alternatives aiming to generate nutritious, safe, and accessible food while minimizing environmental impacts is crucial. This review article discusses the importance of sustainable food production technologies in meeting global food demand while addressing problems regarding climate change. Some of the key technologies include precision agriculture, hydroponics, aquaponics and vertical farming. Precision agriculture uses technology to enhance farming efficiency by gathering data on soil and water variations and optimizing practices like planting, fertilization, and irrigation. Hydroponics and aquaponics are other alternatives for growing plants using as much as 90% less water and producing more food compared to conventional methods, while vertical farming can increase crop yield per land area, particularly in urban settings, due to its potential to reduce the strain on conventional agricultural land suitable for urban regions. Additionally, genetic modification can help create desirable traits of some plants making them plausible to integrate in vertical farming systems, but this requires careful management. Furthermore, nanotechnology is emerging as another method poised to transform agriculture by providing sustainable and efficient solutions for nutrient regulation, plant growth, and disease resistance whereas Agriculture 5.0 combines traditional agriculture with modern technologies to improve sustainable food production. Finally, alternative protein sources, such as plant-based, insects, cultured meat, mycoprotein and microalgae have emerged as a sustainable solution to traditional meat production. Integrating the abovementioned technologies into agricultural practices is crucial for achieving multiple Sustainable Development Goals.

In April 2015, dieback of young olive trees (Olea europaea L., cultivars Istarska bjelica and Buza) occurred in a private orchard near Vodnjan in Istria, Croatia. From total of 50 trees, 8 (16 %) showed symptoms of dieback, with branches that had vascular browning in cross section and attached light brown, downwardly curled leaves. A fungus, was consistently isolated from surface sterilized wood pieces of diseased branches, obtained in pure cultures on potato dextrose agar (PDA) by monohyphal isolation, and incubated at 25°C in darkness. Colonies grew slowly (1.9 mm/day), and the initial white color became gradually dark. Microscopic analysis showed hyaline, septate hypha with conidiophores bearing phialides in verticillate arrangement producing hyaline, single-celled, ovoid to ellipsoid conidia, 4.8 ± 0.7 µm x 2.4 ± 0.4 µm (n = 100). Dark parts of the colonies showed abundant dark-brown microsclerotia embedded in PDA. Solitary microsclerotia (rounded, elongated or irregular in shape) and their aggregates...

Fragaria nilgerrensis Schlecht. (wild strawberry) is widely distributed in Southwest China, characterized by stress tolerance and the fruits of a notable peach aroma. So far there is only limited knowledge of variability and genetic structure in this species. Using AFLP markers, we investigated the genetic variability of 37 plants of F. nilgerrensis sampled in six main mountain areas of Sichuan Province and analyzed their genetic structure. Genetic similarity according to Nei and Li was used for cluster analysis based on UPGMA method and Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering. Stratification of plants into more distinctive genetic groups was determined using Bayesian structure analysis. Six primer combinations produced a total of 1302 fragments of which 818 (62.8%) were polymorphic. Bayesian analysis showed the 37 plants of F. nilgerrensis grouped into five distinctive genetic groups. Most of the plants from the same mountain area clustered into the same genetic group, indicating each area as an area with the unique genetic profile. The genetic parameters analyzed here indicate a huge genetic variability of F. nilgerrensis in Sichuan Province. Our results provide reference data for surveying and protecting the germplasm resources of F. nilgerrensis that could be used in strawberry breeding programs.

Strana vrsta Chymomyza amoena (Loew 1862) zabilježena je prvi puta u Hrvatskoj. Ova fitofagna vrsta octene muhe porijeklom iz Sjeverne Amerike otkrivena je u Europi 1975. godine na području nekadašnje Čehoslovačke, a već 1980....

Biostimuatori su (ne-hranjive) tvari ili mikroorganizmi koji pospješuju procese hranidbe biljaka i doprinose smanjenju posljedica stresa uzrokovanog abiotičkim i biotičkim čimbenicima. Mogu biti mikrobni (korisne bakterije i gljive) i nemikrobni (huminske kiseline, aminokiseline, ekstrakti morskih algi, kitozan i anorganski biostimulansi). Različitim mehanizmima djelovanja biostimulatori potiču učinkovitije iskorištavanje hraniva, otpornost biljaka na stres i povoljno djeluju na kvalitativna svojstva biljaka. Uslijed restrikcija u primjeni sredstava za zaštitu bilja i gnojiva, kao dio alternativnih rješenja pojavljuju se biostimulatori.

Porast gradskog stanovništva uz istovremeno smanjenje zelenih površina ima za posljedicu da se od urbanog zelenila traži da ispuni što veći broj funkcija. Osim ukrasne funkcije, od biljnih vrsta se traži da što više doprinose uslugama koje pruža urbani ekosustav, pokazuju otpornost na biotički i abiotički stres te imaju minimalni negativni utjecaj na čovjeka i okoliš. Zbog dugog životnog vijeka, podnošenja raznolikih okolišnih uvjeta, pridonošenja kvaliteti zraka i tla u gradu te visoke dekorativnosti, božikovina se može ubrojiti u multifunkcionalne biljne vrste pogodne za oblikovanje zelenih urbanih površina. Osim adaptiranosti na lokalne uvjete, kao hrvatska autohtona vrsta s dugom tradicijom primjene u uređenju interijera, privatnih i javnih zelenih površina, božikovina ujedno odražava karakter i običaje okruženja u kojem se koristi. Potencijalno štetni utjecaj vrste ogleda se u emisiji biogenih hlapivih organskih spojeva, otrovnosti te umjerenoj alergenosti muških primjeraka.