General information
Due to increasing global warming and extreme weather events, the environmental stressors like drought, salt, and nutrient shortages negatively impact plant development and yield. The Ararat Plain and Meghri region in Armenia are facing ecological issues by salinity and droughts affecting wheat, barley, and olive production. Armenia also has the problems connected with agricultural waste management such as the utilization of waste from greenhouses, and burning of leftover materials from wheat and barley that negatively affects soil and reduces crop production. The present project targets to assess the soil salinity and drought severity in Ararat Plain and Meghri region, to study the agronomical, morphological, physiological and molecular indicators of wheat, barley and olive plants under stress conditions, and to screen the undocumented Armenian wheat and barley genotypes. The main focus will be to mitigate the impacts of salinity and droughts implementing the emerging materials such as biogenic nanoparticles and biochar synthesized from agricultural waste, in ecofriendly way. This dual-role approach exemplifies a sustainable system, transforming waste into valuable resources while minimizing the ecological footprint in agriculture.
