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Potassium (K) performs multiple essential functions in the plant, including enzyme activation and osmotic regulation. Citrus fruit quality gains considerable influence from potassium (K) fertilizer rate, application method, and sources used. The conducted field experiment assessed the impact and response of different levels of K applications on the quality and yield parameters of citrus fruit, determining a suitable time, stage, and K fertilizer dose for citrus trees. Comparing traditional K fertilizer, i.e., sulfate of potash (SOP), with new-generation potassium (NG-K) employed the use of foliar and soil (basal) applications. Treatments included (i) T1: Control (0 NPK), (ii) T2: Recommended NP and without K, (iii) T3: 500 g K as sulfate of potash (SOP) (basal), (iv) T4: New generation K (NG-K) fertilizer @1.5% (foliar), and (v) T5: 400 g NG-K fertilizer (basal). Observations revealed that citrus trees responded positively in growth characteristics, including fruit quality and physiological attributes, under both foliar and basal K fertilizer applications of different K sources. Notably, NG-K fertilizer proved a better source of K, whether applied as a basal dose or foliar spray. For growth characteristics like the fresh weight of leaves and fruit mass, obtaining the highest values of 35.2 and 172 g, respectively, resulted when applying a basal dose of NG-K. On the other hand, maximum total sugar content (13 mg L-1) and juice content (40%) occurred under foliar-applied NG-K. Foliar application of K fertilizer proved to be more effective for better growth and fruit quality parameters than the basal application of SOP.

Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) is a globally prominent oil seed. Sulfur is a vital nutrient that plays a crucial role in the growth and development of crop plants. Compared with other crops, oilseed crops require more sulfur for their role in oil biosynthesis and as an essential constituent of amino acids, vitamins, proteins, and enzyme structure. Its deficiency results in poor utilization of NPK and, ultimately, crop reduction in yield and quality. Hence, the study investigated the effect of different levels of sulfur on the harvest and quality attributes of various sunflower hybrids. The experiment comprised four sulfur levels (0, 20, 30, 40, and 50 kg per ha) and four sunflower hybrids coded as C124 × RH344, C112 × RSIN82, C116 × RH344, and C208 × RH445. The recorded data underwent analysis statistically using Fisher’s analysis of variance technique, and treatment means comparison followed Tukey’s honest significant difference test (HSD) at a 5% probability level. The results showed maximum plant height at maturity (75.80 cm), head diameter (17.90 cm), leaf area per plant (2,309.21 mm2), 100-achene weight (10.60 g), achene yield (2,806.61 kg ha-1), harvest index (26.58%), and oil content (48.46%), while minimum days to flower initiation (40.33 days) were evident when sowing hybrid C124 × RH344 with an application of 20 kg per ha sulfur.

Climate changes and increasing human population is experiencing by most of the countries throughout the world, so, for production of crops with enhanced adaptation to the environment and high yield reliance through conventional breeding technologies seemed to be fully supporting now a days. It requires those techniques that increase crop yield in less time through developing resistance of plants for stress factors. Fortunately, for improvement of crops under the abiotic and biotic stress conditions, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR) approach provided a way towards new horizon and consequently revolutionizing the plant breeding approach. This review article presents the optimization and mechanism of CRISPR strategy and its huge number of applications for crop improvement like domestication, fruit quality improvement, resistance to abiotic and biotic stresses is most highlighted aspect. In this review article there is a brief summary about CRISPR/Cas9 technique and its role in increasing agricultural yield by gene knock in or knock out. It also presents number of evidence based studies where this approach has been used for making plants resistant to biotic factors. Future perspectives and controversies have also been discussed.