In the Loess Plateau region of China, winter wheat often undergoes prolonged cloudy days without rain which may affect the grain yield and quality. This study examined the impacts of shading and drought conditions during the grain‐filling period of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) on photosynthesis, grain yield and quality traits in a greenhouse experiment. The imposed shading and irrigation‐deficit treatments were corresponded with naturally cloudy weather in the rainfed area. Five shading treatments, 15 days shading (SD15); 12 days shading (SD12); 9 days shading (SD9); 6 days shading (SD6); and 3 days shading (SD3), and four irrigation treatments: full irrigation (I100); 75% of full irrigation (I75); 50% of full irrigation (I50); and 25% of full irrigation (I25), were applied after completion of flowering. The results showed that shading during grain filling decreased the grain yield and individual grain weight irrespective of the dry or wet conditions of the soil. Plant height increased with a decrease in shading duration to favour the efficient capturing of light. The reduction in the rate of photosynthesis was noted with an increase in the drought intensity. Shading significantly reduced the grain protein contents and increased the grain starch contents. In conclusion, shading for a long duration (SD15, SD12 and SD9) and drought stress (I25) during the grain‐filling stage significantly decreased the yield and grain quality of winter wheat. The shading of few days without drought (I100: SD3, SD6 and SD9) improved the plant height, photosynthetic activity and increased the distribution of dry matter from vegetative organs to grains.

No abstract

Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR) is a non-destructive, fast, and low-cost method to measure the grain quality of different cereals. However, the feasibility for determining the critical biochemicals, related to the classifications for food, feed, and fuel products are not adequately investigated. Fourier-transform (FT) NIR was applied in this study to determine the eight biochemicals in four types of sorghum samples: hulled grain flours, hull-less grain flours, whole grains, and grain flours. A total of 20 hybrids of sorghum grains were selected from the two locations in China. Followed by FT-NIR spectral and wet-chemically measured biochemical data, partial least squares regression (PLSR) was used to construct the prediction models. The results showed that sorghum grain morphology and sample format affected the prediction of biochemicals. Using NIR data of grain flours generally improved the prediction compared with the use of NIR data of whole grains. In addition, using the spectra of whole grains enabled comparable predictions, which are recommended when a non-destructive and rapid analysis is required. Compared with the hulled grain flours, hull-less grain flours allowed for improved predictions for tannin, cellulose, and hemicellulose using NIR data. This study aimed to provide a reference for the evaluation of sorghum grain biochemicals for food, feed, and fuel without destruction and complex chemical analysis.

Environmental stresses, including the salt and heavy metals contaminated sites, signify a threat to sustainable crop production. The existence of these stresses has increased in recent years due to human-induced climate change. In view of this, several remediation strategies including nanotechnology have been studied to find more effective approaches for sustaining the environment. Nanoparticles, due to unique physiochemical properties; i.e. high mobility, reactivity, high surface area, and particle morphology, have shown a promising solution to promote sustainable agriculture. Crop plants easily take up nanoparticles, which can penetrate into the cells to play essential roles in growth and metabolic events. In addition, different iron- and carbon-based nanocompositions enhance the removal of metals from the contaminated sites and water; these nanoparticles activate the functional groups that potentially target specific molecules of the metal pollutants to obtain efficient remediation. This review article emphasises the recent advancement in the application of nanotechnology for the remediation of contaminated soils with metal pollutants and mitigating different abiotic stresses. Different implementation barriers are also discussed. Furthermore, we reported the opportunities and research directions to promote sustainable development based on the application of nanotechnology.

No abstract