Intensive agriculture is based on the use of high-energy inputs and quality planting materials with assured irrigation, but it has failed to assure agricultural sustainability because of creation of ecological imbalance and degradation of natural resources. On the other hand, intercropping systems, also known as mixed cropping or polyculture, a traditional farming practice with diversified crop cultivation, uses comparatively low inputs and improves the quality of the agro-ecosystem. Intensification of crops can be done spatially and temporally by the adoption of the intercropping system targeting future need. Intercropping ensures multiple benefits like enhancement of yield, environmental security, production sustainability and greater ecosystem services. In intercropping, two or more crop species are grown concurrently as they coexist for a significant part of the crop cycle and interact among themselves and agro-ecosystems. Legumes as component crops in the intercropping system play versatile roles like biological N fixation and soil quality improvement, additional yield output including protein yield, and creation of functional diversity. But growing two or more crops together requires additional care and management for the creation of less competition among the crop species and efficient utilization of natural resources. Research evidence showed beneficial impacts of a properly managed intercropping system in terms of resource utilization and combined yield of crops grown with low-input use. The review highlights the principles and management of an intercropping system and its benefits and usefulness as a low-input agriculture for food and environmental security.

Wheat constitutes pivotal position for ensuring food and nutritional security; however, rapidly rising soil and water salinity pose a serious threat to its production globally. Salinity stress negatively affects the growth and development of wheat leading to diminished grain yield and quality. Wheat plants utilize a range of physiological biochemical and molecular mechanisms to adapt under salinity stress at the cell, tissue as well as whole plant levels to optimize the growth, and yield by off-setting the adverse effects of saline environment. Recently, various adaptation and management strategies have been developed to reduce the deleterious effects of salinity stress to maximize the production and nutritional quality of wheat. This review emphasizes and synthesizes the deleterious effects of salinity stress on wheat yield and quality along with highlighting the adaptation and mitigation strategies for sustainable wheat production to ensure food security of skyrocketing population under changing climate.

Phytohormones (PHs) play crucial role in regulation of various physiological and biochemical processes that govern plant growth and yield under optimal and stress conditions. The interaction of these PHs is crucial for plant survival under stressful environments as they trigger signaling pathways. Hormonal cross regulation initiate a cascade of reactions which finely tune the physiological processes in plant architecture that help plant to grow under suboptimal growth conditions. Recently, various studies have highlighted the role of PHs such as abscisic acid, salicylic acid, ethylene, and jasmonates in the plant responses toward environmental stresses. The involvement of cytokinins, gibberellins, auxin, and relatively novel PHs such as strigolactones and brassinosteroids in plant growth and development has been documented under normal and stress conditions. The recent identification of the first plant melatonin receptor opened the door to this regulatory molecule being considered a new plant hormone. However, polyamines, which are not considered PHs, have been included in this chapter. Various microbes produce and secrete hormones which helped the plants in nutrient uptake such as N, P, and Fe. Exogenous use of such microbes help plants in correcting nutrient deficiency under abiotic stresses. This chapter focused on the recent developments in the knowledge related to PHs and their involvement in abiotic stresses of anticipation, signaling, cross-talk, and activation of response mechanisms. In view of role of hormones and capability of microbes in producing hormones, we propose the use of hormones and microbes as potential strategy for crop stress management.

Wheat is one of the world’s most commonly consumed cereal grains. During abiotic stresses, the physiological and biochemical alterations in the cells reduce growth and development of plants that ultimately decrease the yield of wheat. Therefore, novel approaches are needed for sustainable wheat production under the changing climate to ensure food and nutritional security of the ever-increasing population of the world. There are two ways to alleviate the adverse effects of abiotic stresses in sustainable wheat production. These are (i) development of abiotic stress tolerant wheat cultivars by molecular breeding, speed breeding, genetic engineering, and/or gene editing approaches such as clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-Cas toolkit, and (ii) application of improved agronomic, nano-based agricultural technology, and other climate-smart agricultural technologies. The development of stress-tolerant wheat cultivars by mobilizing global biodiversity and using molecular breeding, speed breeding, genetic engineering, and/or gene editing approaches such as CRISPR-Cas toolkit is considered the most promising ways for sustainable wheat production in the changing climate in major wheat-growing regions of the world. This comprehensive review updates the adverse effects of major abiotic stresses and discusses the potentials of some novel approaches such as molecular breeding, biotechnology and genetic-engineering, speed breeding, nanotechnology, and improved agronomic practices for sustainable wheat production in the changing climate.

The trace element selenium (Se) is a crucial element for many living organisms, including soil microorganisms, plants and animals, including humans. Generally, in Nature Se is taken up in the living cells of microorganisms, plants, animals and humans in several inorganic forms such as selenate, selenite, elemental Se and selenide. These forms are converted to organic forms by biological process, mostly as the two selenoamino acids selenocysteine (SeCys) and selenomethionine (SeMet). The biological systems of plants, animals and humans can fix these amino acids into Se-containing proteins by a modest replacement of methionine with SeMet. While the form SeCys is usually present in the active site of enzymes, which is essential for catalytic activity. Within human cells, organic forms of Se are significant for the accurate functioning of the immune and reproductive systems, the thyroid and the brain, and to enzyme activity within cells. Humans ingest Se through plant and animal foods rich in the element. The concentration of Se in foodstuffs depends on the presence of available forms of Se in soils and its uptake and accumulation by plants and herbivorous animals. Therefore, improving the availability of Se to plants is, therefore, a potential pathway to overcoming human Se deficiencies. Among these prospective pathways, the Se-biofortification of plants has already been established as a pioneering approach for producing Se-enriched agricultural products. To achieve this desirable aim of Se-biofortification, molecular breeding and genetic engineering in combination with novel agronomic and edaphic management approaches should be combined. This current review summarizes the roles, responses, prospects and mechanisms of Se in human nutrition. It also elaborates how biofortification is a plausible approach to resolving Se-deficiency in humans and other animals.