Sustainable agriculture with low inputs of chemicals and fertilizers has been recently attracting more attention from producers and researchers in the EU. The main reason for such attention is The European Green Deal—the EU’s latest growth strategy concerning environmental degradation and climate change. One of its main components is the Farm to Fork strategy, which especially features the reduction in pesticide and mineral fertilizer application and also supports the development of organic farming. At the same time, food demand is rising. These ambitious challenges require extensive research, development and innovation. Therefore, new non-chemical techniques for improving plant growth and resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses must be explored for their potential in this field. One of the most promising is the use of non-thermal plasma for such purposes. As this physical factor is a complex mixture of ions, atoms, electrons, radicals and molecules, its effect on plants and pathogens is also complex. This review presents different aspects of the effect of non-thermal plasma on seed germination, development of seedlings, plants and pathogens. The literature was explored to provide evidence for the possible use of non-thermal plasma for boosting plant growth and plant protection.

Maize is one of the important food crops in the Czech Republic, its growth and productivity are influenced by climate change. This study investigated the influence of precipitation under recent climate change on maize yield both for grain and silage in the whole Czech Republic during 2002–2019. Total maize yield and yield rate increased in the Czech Republic from 1961 to 2010, but they became to decrease after 2010. This is in line with the tendency of decreased precipitation and an increase in temperature after 2010, and changes are especially significant during the maize growing period, which indicates the importance of temperature and precipitation. In detail, there is a low to moderate negative correlation (−0.39 to −0.51) between grain maize yield and the average temperature in August for almost all the regions. While there is a low negative correlation between silage maize yield with the average temperature in July and August from some regions. The precipitation in July exhibited moderate to high positive correlation (0.54–0.79) to grain maize yield rate for almost all the regions, and it had low to moderate positive correlation (0.35–0.70) to silage maize yield rate for all the regions. Water deficit exhibited a negative correlation with both maize yield rate and its influence mainly in July for silage but both in July and August for grain. Farmer’s profit from grain maize is influence by yield rate, temperature, precipitation, and water deficit. A positive correlation was found between profit and grain yield rate and precipitation from July and August, while a negative correlation was detected between profit and water deficit and the average temperature in July and August. In conclusion, our results pointed out the factors influencing maize yield rate under changing climate conditions in the Czech Republic, and it warrants further studies on how to maintain maize production in a changing climate.

For several years, the Zambian economy relied on the mining sector, which has been affected by fluctuations in commodity prices. The new century enhanced the calls for economic diversification, with the agricultural, manufacturing, and services sectors amongst those pronounced. This article focused on the role of agriculture in supporting the economy, particularly, the effect of agriculture on economic growth. The data analyzed was reviewed for the period 1983–2017. The ARDL Bounds Test was applied in order to meet the said objectives. The ECM results suggest that agriculture, manufacturing, services, and mining converge to an equilibrium and affect economic growth at the speed of adjustment of 90.6%, with the effect from agriculture, mining, and services being significant. The impact of agriculture on economic growth was significant in both the short-run and long-run, with coefficient unit effects of 0.428 and 0.342, respectively. The effects are strong because more than two-thirds of the rural population rely on farming, and agriculture has stood as a catalyst for food security. For the effect of agriculture to be much more profound, farmers must be supported with adequate infrastructure, accessibility to markets, farming inputs, better irrigation techniques, which would address the problem of reliance on rain, all of which were inconsistent in the last decade. Additionally, governments must ensure the institutionalization of food processing industries which add more value to the national income.

African countries have faced competition and several challenges to attract foreign direct investment given the role that FDIs play in the development process. Several efforts made have been futile because of numerous factors that play against the business environment for foreign investments. Our paper analyses the influence of tax incentives on foreign direct investment in African economies based on data from 2000–2018. We utilized panel data on forty (40) African countries and an econometric model of four proxies of tax incentives, after controlling other variables, with robust Random Effect as our discussion estimator. Our results revealed that FDI responds to lower corporate income tax (CTR). Furthermore, foreign direct investment predominates in African economies with longer tax holidays and withholding tax. However, tax concession is insignificant to the inflows of FDIs in Africa. Summarizing, our results recommend that without proper restructuring of the tax incentives to deal with policy lapses by the governments of Africa, achieving the four main goals, i.e., poverty eradication, sustainable growth and development, African integration in the competitive global economy, and women empowerment, will be hindered.

The world has experienced increased impacts of anthropogenic global warming due to increased emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs), which include carbon dioxide (CO₂). Anthropogenic activities that contribute to CO₂ emissions include deforestation, usage of fertilizers, and activities related to mining and energy production. The main objective of this paper was to assess the impacts of agriculture and energy production on CO₂ emissions in Zambia. This research used econometric analysis, specifically the Autoregressive-Distributed Lag (ARDL) Bounds Test, to analyze the relationship between CO₂ emissions and GDP, electricity consumption, agricultural production, and industry value added. The results showed the presence of cointegration, where the variables of CO₂ emissions, GDP, electricity, and agriculture converge to a long-run equilibrium at the rate of 74%. Further, there was a short-run causality towards CO₂ emissions running from agriculture and the consumption of energy as indicated by the Wald test. This is the first study of its kind that empirically shows the impact of agricultural activities and energy consumption on the Zambian environment through their contribution to CO₂ emissions at a macro (country) level. This paper also presents recommendations that are pertinent to mitigate these effects. To deescalate environmental degradation, we propose increasing the number of access points for multiple renewable energy sources across the country; discouraging deforestation, the usage of conventional fertilizers, and the burning of vegetation for fertilizers; encouraging afforestation and reforestation, in addition to providing subsidies, training, and financial support to farmers and entrepreneurs who decide to use environmentally friendly agricultural methods and renewable energy. This research highlights the serious impacts of anthropogenic activities on CO₂ emissions. The study was intended to assist Zambian policymakers in formulating and implementing environmentally friendly policy measures or systems that will contribute towards environmental protection commitments and sustainable economic development.

A number of studies have been done to examine the factors that impact the level of foreign direct investment in African countries. However, most of them have not considered the effect corporate governance structures have on foreign direct investment (FDI) in their estimations. This research therefore pursued the investigation of the relationship between corporate governance structures at the national level and foreign direct investment concentrating mainly on West African economies for the period 2009–2018. The study constructed a panel, sampling annual data from 17 West African countries. The System generalized method of moments (GMM) was used in analyzing the panel data to attain the objective of the research. The results of the study reveal that countries characterized by greater protection of the interest of non-controlling parties are able to accumulate progressive FDIs. Economies with firms portraying high ethical values also generally generate increasing foreign direct investment, and the existence of effective boards also significantly improves the country’s FDI inflows. Finally, the findings report that the impact of regulations in securities and the stock exchange on FDI is insignificant. The study recommends that West African countries institute corporate governance structures purely independent of political influences in order to ensure effective utilization of foreign direct investment to mitigate poverty.