Seed vigour tests enable the detection of seedlots with high field emergence and storability. The present study was conducted to develop an accelerated aging (AA) protocol for seed vigour testing for wet direct-seeded rice. Accelerated aging treatment 43°C/72 h could predict field emergence and hence can be recommended as a vigour test for wet-direct seeded rice of intermediate bold grain type.

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the staple food for over half of the world population, and rice plants are sensitive to cold stress. There is no consensus whether the occurrence of cold nights result in non-recoverable damages to the rice plants. Therefore, we submitted a cold-tolerant and a cold-sensitive genotype to 28 cold nights followed by warm days. While cold-tolerant plants can recover from cold damages, cold-sensitive plants were negatively impacted. These data are important when the producer considers the sowing period and the cold response of the cultivar used.

Water deficit and high temperature are the two prime abiotic constraints affecting chickpea productivity around the globe. Heat and drought tolerance was successfully transferred from the wild species Cicer pinnatifidum into a cultivated chickpea background and promising tolerant derivatives were identified by using physiological and biochemical parameters for both stresses, with yields on par with the respective checks. Utilising these promising derivatives in a chickpea breeding program can improve heat and drought tolerance for sustainable crop productivity.

Changes in grazing intensity affect animal performance of tropical grasses, but these variations have not been described for cattle grazing on limpograss (Hemarthria altissima (Poir) Stapf & C.E. Hubb. cv. Flórida) under continuous stocking. Our results demonstrate that to optimise cattle performance, management targets should permit animals to graze pastures of Flórida limpograss at sward heights of ~20 cm. Thus, this result will be used to guide choice of grazing height for use in production systems based on limpograss.

Tithonia diversifolia is a shrub with outstanding agronomic and chemical characteristics for animal feed, and with wide genetic diversity. We evaluated genotypes for potential chemical differences and fermentative behaviour to identify potential improvements to the supply of nutrients in low-quality diets for ruminants. Regardless of genotype, T. diversifolia offers high amount of nutrients, which could increase animal productivity as well as mitigate CH₄ emissions, characteristics that will favour its introduction to ruminant systems.