Sustainable Agriculture under Drought Stress

Dr. Hassan Etesami is a research scientist with 15 years of experience in the field of soil biology and biotechnology. He obtained his doctor’s degree from the Department of Soil Science, University College of Agriculture & Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Iran, where he is currently a member of the faculty. Dr Etesami has a special interest in developing biofertilizers and biocontrol agents that meet farmers’ demands. He has coauthored over 80 publications (research papers, review papers, and book chapters) in various areas including biofertilizers and biocontrol. He is also reviewer for the Journal of 98 journals. Dr. Etesami’s research areas include stressed-agricultural management by silicon, microbial ecology, bio-fertilizers, soil pollution, integrated management of abiotic (salinity, drought, heavy metals, and nutritional imbalance) and biotic (fungal pathogens) stresses, plant-microbe-interactions, environmental microbiology, and bioremediation. Yinglong Chen works in the School of Agriculture and Environment, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia.

Section 1: Water scarcity, climate change and agriculture sustainability
1. Impact of climate change and drought stress on arid land agriculture
2. Growing water scarcity in agriculture: Future challenge to global water security
3. Wastewater reuse, water conservation and management in semi-arid and arid lands for sustainable agriculture
4. Strategies for deficit irrigation of crops
5. New approaches to irrigation scheduling of agronomic crops
6. A Contribution to soil fertility assessment for arid and semi-arid lands
7. Sustainable crops to cope with water scarcity and low nutritional demand
8. Sustainable fruit trees to cope with water scarcity and low nutritional demand
9. Impacts of climate change/drought stress on plant Metabolome
10. Impacts of drought on disease development and management

Section 2: Linking water stress and crop nutrition
11. Problems of soil nutrient availability for crop production under drought stress
12. Effects of drought stress on soil nitrogen cycling
13. Plant growth under drought stress: Significance of mineral nutrients
14. Novel aspects of fertilization in arid and semiarid regions

Section 3: Improving the soil fertility under drought conditions
15. Improving the efficiency of nutrient transfer from fertilizers under drought conditions
16. Changes of soil microbial, physical and chemical characteristics under drought stress
17. The impact of drought stress on soil microbial community, enzyme activities and microbial diversity
18. Drought stress and root-Associated bacterial communities
19. Drought stress and root-Associated fungal communities
20. Dynamics of soil fertility management practices in arid and semi-arid regions
21. Soil fertility management for cereal crops in semi-arid and arid conditions
22. Improving soil fertility and moisture in arid and semi-arid regions using organic amendments

Section 4: Positive Interactions between crops and soil microorganisms to enhance the drought tolerance
23. Reclamation of arid and semi-arid soils: The role of plant growth-promoting archaea and bacteria
24. Reclamation of arid and semi-arid soils: The role of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi
25. Improved soil water retention and reduced evaporation in drought-stressed agriculture by soil beneficial microbes
26. Rhizosphere engineering for managing agriculture in arid and semi-arid regions

Section 5: Crop physiological and yield responses to water stress
27. Effect of soil drought on plant root systems and nutrient availability
28. Plant drought stress tolerance: understanding its physiological, biochemical and molecular mechanisms
29. Crop root responses to drought stress: Molecular mechanisms, nutrient regulations, and interactions with microorganisms in the rhizosphere
30. Water management in irrigated rice: coping with water scarcity