Enhancing Crop and Yield Resilience in Challenging Environments: The Role of Technical Innovations and Ecofriendly Approaches

Crop production systems face growing pressure from a changing environment. Building crop and yield resilience in challenging conditions requires solutions that stabilize production while improving resource-use efficiency and limiting environmental impacts. Improving crop and yield resilience will depend on combining technical innovations with eco-friendly approaches—including biofertilizers, soil amendments, and advanced irrigation and water-management technologies—that strengthen soil function, optimize nutrient and water supply, and support plant performance under stress. In parallel, the development and deployment of stress-tolerant crop varieties and genotypes, supported by genetic improvement programs, remains essential to enhance tolerance to multiple, co-occurring stresses. Evidence further indicates that combining biological and mineral fertilizers can improve plant traits, nutrient uptake, and yield stability in major staple crops such as wheat, rice, and maize, while amendments such as biochar and mineral-based materials (e.g., glauconite) can mitigate adverse soil conditions and support growth. However, the need for a better understanding of the interactions among soil amendments, irrigation strategies, and crop varieties in resilient agricultural systems remains urgent.

This Research Topic focuses on integrated strategies that enhance crop and yield resilience under challenging environmental conditions, with a central emphasis on technical innovations and eco-friendly agronomic approaches that improve productivity, yield stability, and resource-use efficiency. We welcome original research, reviews, and field-based studies examining how biological and mineral nutrient management, soil amendments, and irrigation and water-saving technologies interact with crop genetic background, including stress-tolerant varieties and genotypes. Contributions that clarify mechanisms, quantify agronomic outcomes, and translate findings into scalable practices for resilient and resource-efficient production systems are particularly encouraged.

Submissions may address (but are not limited to) the following themes:

Identify and evaluate technical innovations that increase crop and yield resilience in challenging environments.
Assess how eco-friendly inputs and practices (e.g., biofertilizers, mineral fertilizers, soil amendments) influence plant performance, soil health, and resource-use efficiency.
Advance understanding of the interactions among soil amendments, irrigation strategies, and crop varieties/genotypes in resilient agricultural systems.
Synthesize progress in genetic improvement and deployment of stress-tolerant varieties that support stable yields under combined stresses.
Provide evidence that supports resilient production systems that maintain productivity and quality while reducing input use and environmental pressure.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: agroecology, ecosystem, resilient agriculture, agronomic practices, crop performance, sustainability, resource-use efficiency, technical innovations, crop and yield resilience

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.