Sustainable Agriculture: Plant Protection and Crop Production
A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Pest and Disease Management".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 27 February 2025 | Viewed by 145
Special Issue Editors
Interests: soil health; soil carbon balance; composting and composts; nitrogen fertilization; agroecology; crop systems; vegetable crops
Interests: horticulture; tobacco; biodegradable mulching; biofertilizers; plant nutrition; plant physiology; fertilizers
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Sustainability and productivity in agriculture cannot be separated. The increase in agricultural productivity in the context of environmental and economic sustainability is the result of the improvement of the entire production system: soil health management, plant improvement of output performance, optimization of crop and water management, correct approach to the protection from phytophagous organisms, plant diseases, and weeds. Goals such as the protection and enhancement of primary resources and biodiversity, land management and protection from natural and man-made risks can only be achieved through a systemic approach. Agroecological crop protection (ACP) is based on a qualitative but explicit model of the dynamics of pest and natural enemy populations at the scale of a section of the landscape adjoining the plot. ACP is therefore compatible with integrated pest management. Indeed, these two approaches may be seen as complementary because they are not on the same plane: the term ACP refers to the knowledge to be mobilized, and IPM to the operations to be carried out and their combination within technical itineraries. If it meets ACP criteria, IPM takes the form of its most demanding version, that of the use of chemical pesticides strictly as a last resort.
This Special Issue aims to collect scientific contributions resulting from multi-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary approaches on the theme of the progressive redesign of food and non-food cropping systems. We expect contributions dealing with experiences linking the research of innovative strategies for phytosanitary protection from phytophagous, pathogens, weeds with agroecological management needs (tillage management, soil fertilization, crop irrigation, crop choice, crop spatial distribution, and temporal succession) capable of building soil and plant health, to supporting the production of crop systems while reducing reliance on external inputs.
Dr. Luigi Morra
Dr. Eugenio Cozzolino
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agronomy is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- agroecology
- integrated pest management
- biological control of plant disease
- crop protection
- soil health
- plant health
- biofertilizers and biocontrol
- organic amendment
- cover crops
- minimum tillage
