Muhammad Farooq

Sultan Qaboos University | SQU · Department of Plant Sciences

The increasing frequency of concurrent heat and drought stress poses a significant challenge to agricultural productivity, particularly for cool‐season grain legumes, including broad bean (Vicia Faba L.), lupin (Lupinus spp.), lentil (Lens culinaris Medik), chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.), grasspea (Lathyrus sativus L.), pea (Pisum sativum L.), and c...

Conventional tillage, extreme climate events, increasing weed incidence, pest and disease pressures, and diminished farm input availability negatively impact crop yield, stability, profitability, and water productivity in South Asia’s rice-wheat (R-W) systems. This article reviews and evaluates the effectiveness and benefits of conservation agricul...

Aridity, characterized by a prolonged and natural imbalance in water availability, results in reduced soil moisture, which directly affects plant distribution and limits crop productivity. Plants subjected to drought stress exhibit morpho-anatomical changes that are closely associated with cellular, physiological, and biochemical adaptations aimed...

Salt stress is a critical abiotic factor severely limiting crop productivity globally. Development of salt-tolerant genotypes can help address this challenge. This study was conducted to evaluate the impact of salt stress on morphological, physiological, biochemical, and mineral composition parameters among lentil landraces of Omani origin. Eight l...

Soil salinity is a major constraint to global wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) production, adversely affecting crop growth and development. Despite this challenge, traditional breeding methods and management practices have struggled to keep pace with the increasing demand for grain crops. Key obstacles include insufficient understanding of sodium (Na+)...

Nickel (Ni) is considered a micronutrient for plants; however, in high concentrations, Ni becomes toxic and hazardous to plants, humans, and animals. High levels of Ni inhibit seed germination, reduce chlorophyll content, and cause oxidative stress to plants. Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) can help mitigate the N-toxicity. While the modulation of plant tol...

Cereal crops are cultivated across diverse regions globally, facing numerous environmental challenges, with salinity posing a significant threat to their growth and productivity. Plants respond to salinity stress (SS) through various morphological and physiological mechanisms. Notably, root system architecture (RSA) has emerged as a crucial factor...

The stability of soil organic carbon (SOC) affects long-term carbon storage in forest ecosystems. However, the knowledge about SOC stability and carbon mineralization in subtropical ecosystems, particularly in the Dinghushan region, Guangdong, China, still needs to be explored. Therefore, the experiment was conducted in three distinct forest types...

Changing climate undermines global food security by adversely affecting crop production. Biological agriculture, or organic farming, serves as an alternative to traditional methods that depend heavily on synthetic inputs. Vermicompost, produced through the non-thermophilic biodegradation of organic waste by earthworms and associated microbes, is a...

This Chapter describes the concept of crops, the classification of arable crops, the cropping system and patterns being practiced in Pakistan.

Salinity is one of the main challenges to sustainable agriculture and is a plant abiotic stress of growing global concern. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) symbiosis aids plants in overcoming stress. In this study, the efficacy of inoculation with locally isolated species using a quick colonizing method, and a commercially available AMF product w...

Researchers are increasingly concerned about antimony (Sb) in ecosystems and the environment. Sb primarily enters the environment through anthropogenic (urbanization, industries, coal mining, cars, and biosolid wastes) and geological (natural and chemical weathering of parent material, leaching, and wet deposition) processes. Sb is a hazardous meta...

Trace metals and metalloids (TMMs) can have positive and negative effects on plant growth, and their toxicity levels can vary greatly among living organisms due to differences in metabolic activity. Therefore, a comprehensive elucidation of plant biochemical processes, transportation mechanisms, and detoxification processes. While prior research ha...

Purpose: Salt stress is one of the major environmental stresses that limit plant growth and productivity. Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), a non-proteinogenic amino acid, modulates plant responses and improves tolerance against abiotic stresses. Methods: This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of exogenously applied GABA, as seed priming, fo...

Drought stress (DS) is a recurrent and severe meteorological challenge affecting agricultural regions globally, leading to significant shifts in plant species distribution and substantial reductions in crop yields. The seasonal occurrence, intensity, and duration of DS vary in response to changing climatic conditions. Plants deploy various physio-b...

The availability of soil water content and nutrition in the maternal plant environment plays pivotal roles in shaping the performance, physio-biochemical properties, and chemical composition of the produced seed. This study aimed to investigate the effects of water and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) of maternal plant environment on performance,...

The growing global population presents a significant challenge to ensuring food security, further compounded by the increasing threat of salinity to agricultural productivity. Wheat, a major staple food providing 20 % of the total caloric intake for humans, is susceptible to salinity stress. Developing new salt-tolerant wheat cultivars using wheat...

Global climatic changes and the increasing human population have severely threatened global food security. Under abiotic stresses, metabolic reprogramming is crucial in cytosolic osmotic regulation. Therefore, biochemical characterization and profiling are essential to understanding the physio-molecular responses of plants to environmental stress,...

Studies on the wheat response under late sowing (LS) and salinity stress (SS) are available, however, in rice-wheat and cotton-wheat cropping systems, wheat planting is often delayed resulting in co-occurrence of LS and SS in salt affected soils. This two-year field study was conducted to evaluate the influence of foliar application of plant growth...

Microplastics are a significant environmental challenge, with growing concerns about their prevalence in soil ecosystems. It may affect the physicochemical characteristics of soil, cycling of nutrients, and a variety of mi crobial organisms. In addition, microplastics affect greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, including carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide,...

The growing global population presents a significant challenge to ensuring food security, further compounded by the increasing threat of salinity to agricultural productivity. Wheat, a major staple food providing 20% of the total caloric intake for humans, is susceptible to salinity stress. Developing new salt-tolerant wheat cultivars using wheat b...

To ensure the sustainable cultivation of agronomic crops in agricultural soils polluted with cadmium (Cd), the integrated application of Cd-remediation strategies at edaphic and foliar levels has been examined. However, the integrated application of biochar (BC) and plant growth regulators (PGRs) for mitigating Cd stress, especially in maize, remai...

Plants capture atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) for carbon (C) assimilation through photosynthesis, with the photosynthates stored as plant biomass (above- and below-ground plant parts). The C stored as living biomass is a short-term C sequestration strategy, whereas soil organic carbon (SOC) is a long-term C sequestration strategy. In this regard,...

The efficient utilization of input resources is imperative to harvest optimum crop yield on a sustainable basis. Intercropping is a sustainable agronomic practice to achieve higher yields with efficient utilization of available resources. A 2-year field study was conducted to investigate the effect of wheat-maize intercropping under different nitro...

Drought and heat are major abiotic stresses threatening the sustainability of global wheat production. The landraces are tolerant to abiotic stresses and can serve as valuable genetic resources in breeding programs aimed at developing stress tolerant genotypes. In this study, wheat landraces of Omani origin were evaluated for morphological, physiol...

Water scarcity and the excessive use of chemical fertilizers are the key destructive factors that negatively affect the quantity and quality of crops. Chitosan nanoparticles (Cs-NPs) and biofertilizers (BFS) have been shown to alleviate the effects of drought stress on plants, but information is scant on the effect of their co-addition on minimizin...

Cadmium (Cd) is a non-essential highly toxic element that poses a potential health threat for plants, humans, and animals at considerably smaller concentrations. Plants can uptake Cd from soil and water due to its high mobility. In this review, the plant responses toward Cd phytotoxicity and the mechanism of Cd tolerance are summarized. Prevalent r...

Climate change threatens global food and nutritional security through negative effects on crop growth and agricultural productivity. Many countries have adopted ambitious climate change mitigation and adaptation targets that will exacerbate the problem, as they require significant changes in current agri-food systems. In this review, we provide a r...

Parthenium weed (Parthenium hysterophorus L.) is an emerging production constraint in many summer crops including sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench), but limited control options are available. In this field study, the efficacy of sole and sequential applications of a pre-emergence (pendimethalin) and a post-emergence (bromoxynil) herbicide was eva...

Supra-optimal temperature adversely affects plant growth and development. Among different growth phases, the reproductive stage of plants is highly sensitive to high temperature stress. The heat tolerance of plants is reliant on a complex interplay of various factors, including the activation of heat stress responses, downstream signaling pathways,...

In modern agriculture, weed problems are predicted to worsen and become more complicated as a result of increasing invasiveness, herbicide resistance, and increased emphasis on high-input methods. Weeds cause huge economic yield losses that range from $100 million to $26 billion globally. The knowledge of weed science has offered success in the pas...

Conservation agriculture (CA) aims to achieve productive and sustainable farming while preserving the natural resource base and environment. This article explores how CA aligns with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations and contributes to their achievement, particularly SDG 2: Zero Hunger, SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation, SDG...

Crop plants in natural environments can be exposed to biotic and abiotic stresses that occur simultaneously or sequentially throughout their plant developmental stages. Abiotic stress, such as heat, salinity, drought, waterlogging, and cold stress, can impact plant tolerance and disease infestation. The outcomes of abiotic stresses on disease virul...

Optimum germination and seedling establishment are important stages in the life cycle of plants with dormant seeds. This research was conducted to evaluate the impact of seed priming on the germination indices and seedling growth of cumin seeds with different lifetimes. Cumin seeds of different lifetimes (freshly harvested seeds, 12 and 24 months o...

Frequent and intense drought episodes impact agricultural productivity by challenging plant water status. The maintenance of hydraulic conductivity plays a key role in deciphering stress-induced impacts. Understanding drought-induced changes to root anatomical traits is important to improve plant drought adaptation. However, little is known about t...

This study investigated the effect of atmospheric ammonia (NH3) on physiological traits and water- and nitrogen (N) use efficiencies in wheat seedlings exposed to two N rates viz. control (-N) and recommended N dose (+N). Plants of two cultivars viz. high N efficient (Xiaoyan No. 6 (X6)) and low N efficient cultivar (Changhan No.58 (C58)) were expo...

Pedagogy for transformative learning is an educational approach that focuses on creating significant and lasting changes in learners’ perspectives, behaviors, and values rather than simply transmitting the information. This article delves into the pedagogy for transformative learning with a specific focus on sustainable agriculture and the environm...

Alternative pedagogical approaches and curriculum transformations are crucial for promoting sustainable agriculture and environmental education. Conventional pedagogical approaches to teaching these subjects often rely on lecture-based methods and rote learning, which can limit students' engagement and critical thinking skills. Alternative pedagogi...

Wheat grain quality is a range of compositional and physical properties where threshold levels are set according to end-use requirements. The heat stress limits resource translocation to developing grains, causing a significant reduction in grain yield due to a decrease in the grain dimension and size. Moreover, heat stress also decreases the starc...

Purpose: Bread wheat is one of the major global cereal crops. However, sustainable wheat production is threatened by several stresses including salinity, drought, and high temperature stresses. Drought and heat stresses often occur together and cause substantial reduction in grain yield. This study was conducted to evaluate the potential of seed pr...

Cadmium (Cd) is a carcinogenic element that has no significant role in plant growth and development. Cadmium accumulated in plants enters the food chain and can cause human health risk problems. Recently, Cd accumulation in cacao beans has developed an interest in researchers and scientists to work on how to alleviate its toxicity and uptake in cac...

Purpose: In this study, the potential of co-application of biochar and seed priming with nano-sized chitosan-proline seed priming to improve salt tolerance in bread wheat was evaluated. Methods: For priming, the seeds of two differentially responding bread wheat genotypes, Messani White (salt-sensitive) and SIS-12 (salt-tolerant), were soaked in na...

Arsenic (As) toxicity hinders plant growth and productivity and poses human health concerns. However, silicon (Si) nutrition can help improve plant tolerance to abiotic stresses. This study evaluated the influence of Si application on plant growth and As accumulation in an As hyperaccumulator plant, Isatis (Isatis cappadocica Desv.) under As stress...

Introduction Climate change, pest infestation, and soil degradation are significantly reducing wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) yield. Wheat is cultivated in rice-wheat and cotton-wheat cropping systems and escalating global population is exerting substantial pressure on the efficiency of these systems. Conservation tillage and crop rotation could help...

Temperature and precipitation significantly influence the cultivation of Soybean (Glycine max L.) across the globe. Therefore, the current investigation was planned to evaluate the impacts of these climate change indicators on the phenology and yield of this oilseed legume. For this purpose, the experiments were conducted during June-September of 2...

Understanding the physiological and biochemical basis of plant tolerance to freezing stress is very critical in in breeding plants tolerant to freezing stress. In this study, consisting of two independent experiments, kabuli type chickpea genotypes (701) were exposed to freezing stress (− 12 °C) at the seedling stage under controlled conditions. Th...

Salinity and drought are two major abiotic stresses challenging global crop production and food security. In this study, the effects of individual and combined effects of drought (at different phenological stages) and salt stresses on growth, morphology, and physiology of triticale were evaluated. For this purpose, a 3 x 4 factorial design in three...

Balanced photosynthesis is essential for improved plant survival and agricultural benefits in terms of biomass and yield. Photosynthesis is the hub of energy metabolism in plants; however, drought stress (DS) strongly perturbs photosynthetic efficiency due to biochemical and diffusive limitations that reduce key photosynthetic components and close...

Agricultural crops are subject to a variety of biotic and abiotic stresses that adversely affect growth and reduce the yield of crop plantss. Traditional crop stress management approaches are not capable of fulfilling the food demand of the human population which is projected to reach 10 billion by 2050. Nanobiotechnology is the application of nano...

Soil organic carbon (SOC) and nitrogen (N) mineralization are important biogeochemical processes associated with soil fertility. These processes are influenced by physically, chemically, and biologically stabilized organic carbon (C) fractions, the mechanisms of which are not well-known. The present study was conducted to evaluate the combined effe...

Immediate detection and prediction tools for interactive stresses are essential to avoid yield losses. This study investigated the capability of hyperspectral (HSI) and chlorophyll fluorescence imaging (CFI) to characterize individual and interactive frost (−4 ◦C) and drought (40% soil moisture content) stress responses at the booting stage of whea...

Sustainable Agriculture and the Environment describes the relationship of agriculture, society, nature and the environment, sustainable agriculture and sustainable development goals, management of biophysical resources for sustainable food and environment, traditional knowledge and innovative options, and social and policy aspects of sustainable ag...

Salinity is one of the important abiotic stresses that challenge crop productivity worldwide. Crop nutrition management and exogenous application of proline may help improve plant salt tolerance. This study investigated the effects of exogenous proline (100 mM) and phosphorus (10 and 100 mg kg-1 sand) application on the growth, phosphorus content a...

Nitrogen (N) recovery efficiency in dry-direct seeded rice (DSR) is less than 30%, hence, requires special consideration. Nitrogen management strategies such as splitting N in appropriate dose and application time synchronize with crop demand to improve nitrogen use efficiency (NUE). This two-year field study compared two- and three- N splits top-d...

Heat stress is causing serious problems in crop production, leading to catastrophic losses in crop yield worldwide. The study was conducted to evaluate the role of thiourea to ameliorate the negative impact of high-temperature stress on plant growth, seed yield, and seed oil content in camelina. The study comprised of (i) camelina genotypes, Austra...

Decreased light conditions due to cloud cover and smog pollution severely limit crop cultivation and production. Reduced light interception coupled with irregular rainfall caused damage to major crops’ yield at their critical growth stages, especially at the post-silking stage in maize (Zea mays L.). This study was conducted in underground soil col...

Purpose: Oilseed production under semiarid conditions in Pakistan is under the threat of thermal stress at the early and later stages of the crop. This study was carried out to evaluate the effect of sulfhydryl thiourea on the performance and quality of late sown camelina. Methods: The study comprised of; i) sowing time (ST): ST1=10 November and ST...

Cold and drought stress events are detrimental to plant growth and development in wheat, leading to severe damage and yield losses. This meta-analysis explored and covered all the major comparisons of (1) cold, drought, and combined cold and drought stresses and (2) spring and winter wheat. The risks of cold and drought associations in spring and w...

In this study, the response of bread wheat genotypes to drought stress was evaluated on physiological and morphological basis. A group of 53 bread wheat genotypes, of diverse origin and morphology, was grown under well-watered and drought stress conditions. The tested genotypes were evaluated for carbon assimilation, water use efficiency, and morph...

Climate change and global warming have increased the frequency of extreme heat stress events that severely affect plant production. Photosynthesis is an intricate heat-sensitive physiological process. Heat stress affects CO2 assimilation, photochemical reactions, D1 and D2 protein turnover, and chlorophyll biosynthesis. Heat stress-induced damage t...

Bioremediation of organic contaminants has become a major environmental concern in the last few years, due to its bio-resistance and potential to accumulate in the environment. The use of diverse technologies, involving chemical and physical principles, and passive uptake utilizing sorption using ecofriendly substrates have drawn a lot of interest....

Nickel is a heavy metal that has adverse effects on plants. The present study aimed to evaluate the morpho-physiological responses of sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) to Pseudomonas strains (Pseudomonas fluorescens strain 150 and 159, and Pseudomonas putida strain 10) inoculation under Ni-contaminated soil (0, 75, 100, 150 mg Ni per kg of soil). G...

Wheat grain quality, an important determinant for human nutrition, is often overlooked when improving crop production for stressed environments. Climate change makes this task more difficult by imposing combined stresses. The scenarios relevant to climate change include elevated CO2 concentrations (eCO2) and extreme climatic events such as drought,...

Drought stress is one of the major yield limiting factors in grain legumes. The severity and intensity of drought stress are predicted to increase in the future. Drought stress in grain legumes at any stage causes significant yield reduction owing to a decrease in stand establishment (misfunctioning of germination enzymes like proteases and amylase...

Climate-change-driven global warming is posing a serious threat to the productivity of vegetable and field crops — more so in summer crops. Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L. Moench) is one of the leading summer vegetables; however, this is often exposed to an extremely high temperature causing significantly detrimental effects on its growth and yield...

Crop production worldwide is affected by the water deficit. Drought is a long irregular dry period, which happens in an area when it consistently receives below-average precipitation. In this study, impact of drought stress (irrigation after 80 (normal or control irrigation) and 160 (stress condition) mm evaporation from class A pan) on the growth...

The notion of food security is a global phenomenon that impinges on every human. Efforts to increase productivity and yields have historically degraded the environment and reduced biodiversity and ecosystem services, with the greatest impact on the poor. Sustainable agriculture—farming in sustainable ways based on an understanding of ecosystem serv...