How crop biodiversity adapts to drought conditions and enhances grain yield became the most important issue facing agronomists and plant breeders at the turn of the century. Variations in genetic response, inadequacy of nutrients in the soil, and insufficient access to nutrients are factors that aggravate drought stressors. The development of screening tools for identifying drought tolerance is important in the deployment of durum wheat varieties suited to drought-prone environments. An experiment was conducted to evaluate durum wheat varieties under a range of nutrient supplies in naturally imposed drought conditions. The treatments consisting of two nitrogen regimes (i.e., control and 60 kg ha−1), four durum wheat varieties, and three types of nutrients (control, sulfur, and zinc) that were arranged in a split-split plot design with three replications. Both foliar-based sulfur and zinc fertilization were employed at the flag leaf stage, at a rate of 4 and 3-L ha−1, respectively. The results showed a significant (p < 0.05) genetic variation in chlorophyll concentration, grain protein content, tillering potential, and leaf area index. Varieties that contained better leaf chlorophyll content had improved grain yield by about 8.33% under 60 kg/ha nitrogen. A combined application of nitrogen and zinc at flag leaf stage significantly improved grain yield of Duragold by about 21.3%. Leaf chlorophyll content was found to be a more important trait than spikes per m2 to discriminate durum wheat varieties. Foliar application of sulfur increased the grain yield of drought-stressed plants by about 12.23%. Grain yield and protein content were strongly correlated with late-season SPAD readings. Significant (p < 0.05) correlation coefficients were obtained between normalized difference vegetation index, leaf area index, grain yield, and protein content with late-season chlorophyll content, revealing the importance of chlorophyll content in studying and identifying drought-tolerant varieties.

Although Hungary and Tanzania's climatic, soil, and technological conditions differ significantly in crop production, cereals crop cultivation is of paramount importance; maize crop dominates the cultivated area (Hungary 1 million ha, Tanzania 3 million ha) both from a feed and food point of view. Unfortunately, in both countries, fungal species (Fusaria, Aspergilli, Penicillia, etc.) that produce various mycotoxins on cereals, including maize grains, are a growing concern. The situation is complicated because these fungal species and their toxins can appear not only on cereals but also on other crops. Despite the prevalence of mycotoxins in both countries, studies show higher exposure risks and contamination above tolerable levels for human consumption in Tanzania to Hungary, with Tanzania observing acute aflatoxicosis.

A comparison of selected crop production for Hungary and Tanzania is presented.  The roles of climate, land use and productivities of crops vary significantly in the two countries. Climate impacts the distribution of crops in Tanzania more than in Hungary as Tanzania’s climate is diverse with hot, humid, semi-arid areas, high rainfall lake regions, and temperate highlands. In contrast, the Hungarian climate is temperate and uniform across the country. Land use changes significantly in Tanzania than in Hungary. Tanzania indicates a reduction in forest land and expanding agricultural land associated mainly with the variation in crop productivities and population growth. To maintain sustainable crop production, increasing crop productivity is of paramount focus to meet the requirements of the growing population.