Plant protection represents one of the strategies to fill the yield gap and to achieve food security, a key topic for India development. Analysis of climate risks for crops indicates that South Asia is one of the regions most exposed to the adverse impact on many plants that are relevant to inhabitants exposed to food safety risks. Furthermore, accumulation of pesticide residues in the aquatic and other ecosystems is becoming a significant threat in India. These perspectives require to develop programs of crop protection that can be feasible according to Indian rural development and pollution policy. Here we review the research works done on soil solarization in India. Soil solarization (also called plasticulture) is an eco-friendly soil disinfestations method for managing soil-borne plant pathogens. This is the process of trapping solar energy by moist soil covered with transparent polyethylene films and chemistry, biology and physical properties of soil are involved in pest control. So far, this technique is applied in more than 50 countries, mostly in hot and humid regions. India has 29 states and these states fall under five climatic zones, from humid to arid ones. We report pest management application in different climatic zones and their effects on production, weeds, nematodes, and pathogenic microorganisms. The analysis of soil temperatures and crop protection results indicate as environmental requirement for soil solarization fits in most of Indian rural areas. Soil solarization is compatible with future Indian scenarios and may support Indian national food security programs.

NaCl, KCl, or PEG (polyethylene glycol)-amended potato dextrose broth (PDB), and potato dextrose agar (PDA) are essential for pure culture studies of water stress on fungi. Direct information on the actual water potential (WP) of this salt-amended PDB and PDA is lacking. Much fungal research in the past calculated WP of these salt-amended growth media by adding the WP of their constituents taken from individual salt dilution studies. But the WP of any complex solution will be modified by the level of synergism between its solutes. This study presents evidence of change in NaCl concentration due to synergism for attaining the same level of WP in NaCl solution, and NaCl amended PDB and PDA. The relation between WP and temperature and WP and salt concentration is also modified depending on the number of solutes in a growth medium. The WP of PEG-amended PDB increases with rising temperature, while that of NaCl/KCl amended PDB and PDA decreases with the increase of temperature. These results can be useful for doing pure culture studies on the biology and modeling the growth of air, water, and soil-borne fungi important in the food and agriculture industry and in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.