UTRIENT deficiency on cultivated plants may lead to human malnutrition when consumes these plants. So, the biofortification is a promising approach in increasing several crops in their contents of essentials nutrients for human health like selenium (Se). The current study focused on using two different sources of Se-fertilizers for biofortifying broccoli under nutrient deficiency stress in sandy soil. The applied doses of selenium in each form were 10, 20, 30, and 40 ppm in the form of mineral and biological nano Se-fertilizers. The vegetative parameters and yield of broccoli were determined. In general, the highest growth and yield components were attained for applying the dose of 30 mg Si L -1 for both the soluble and nano Se-forms. The studied parameters included fresh and dry weight of leaves and broccoli head, head diameter and its length gave the highest values when the dose of 30 ppm from both Se-fertilizers applied. The content of N, P, K, and Se nutrients significantly increased by increasing applied Se-doses till 40 ppm in both Se-fertilizers except P. The harvested yield of head broccoli was obtained after applied dose of 30 ppm in case of both Se-fertilizers, with an increase rate for mineral Se-fertilizer 60.1 and 57.2%, whereas were 51.8 and 47.4% for nano-Se fertilizer for both seasons, respectively. The biological Se-nanofertilizer may be is preferable for a safe biofortification. The most distinguished findings in the current study that producing biofortified broccoli rich in Se for human health can be achieved under grown in sandy soils or nutrient deficiency stress. Further studies are needed to answer more open questions regarding producing a safe and healthy food for human nutrition.

EGETABLE crops are importantsources of vitamins, and minerals for human, and provides him with several bioactive compounds. Producing safe and healthy vegetables for human diet is of a great global issue. Thisneeds to exploit all available resources, particularly soils understressful conditions such as saline, saline-sodic, waterlogged and low fertile soils), climatic stress (drought, flooding, saltwater intrusion, and heat stress), and along with normal conditions. Nano-biofortification can support the vegetable productivity especiallyunder such conditions by using the biological nanonutrients. Bio-nanonutrients exhibitsmany distinguishableproperties than mineral forms such as higher biological activity, lower toxicity, and better bioavailability. Bio-nanonutrients also promote the vegetable growth, productivity and enhance planttolerance towards different stresses by reinforcing the function of antioxidant enzymes. Thus, production of biofortified vegetables under stressful conditions might be an optimum and sustainable solution particularly by using the biological nanonutrients like selenium. The controlling factors that are needed for a successful nanobiofortification program of vegetables are correlated with growing media, plant species, and method application of nanonutrients. The over dose of nanonutrients maycause a nanotoxicity for cultivated plants, and then human health after consumption. This problem can be managed by following the 4R Nutrient Stewardship concept, which focuses on the right rate, right source, right time, and right place. This program will be discussed in more details in this review article.

UE to the rapid population growth, global food production should be increased to meet this global demand. Agriculture is considered the main dominant channel of food supply and any approach that support the crop productivity is urgent. These agro-practices may include using the high-yield varieties, improving rational irrigation and fertilization. It is noticed that, using of chemical or mineral fertilizers in agricultural production dramatically increased global food production. Several negative impacts have been recorded worldwide on the environment, which resulted from leaching of nutrients into groundwater, beside the low efficiency of applied fertilizers. Applying of nanofertilizers, is a promising approach, and an effective technology, which can increase sustainability and efficiency of agro-production of cultivated crops because of their nano-size properties, their high nutrient use efficiency, their slow release of nutrients, and thereby low required applied dose of fertilizer. Smart fertilizer means the control dose and time of applied fertilizers using the smart agro-technological and advanced tools such as global positioning systems, and remote sensing. These tools are able to maximize crop yield and minimize agro-chemical inputs by precise monitoring of the environment. Therefore, this work is a comparison between smart fertilizer and nanofertilizer, and to answer the main question: are the bio-nanofertilizers considered emerging precision agriculture strategy? This is also a call by Environment, Biodiversity and Soil Security (EBSS) for receiving articles on smart fertilizer, under many related topics such as different applications of smart fertilizers in smart agriculture, their challenges, their obstacles and the novel solutions in this concern.

N THE LAST centuries, agriculture depended on the fertile soils beside the river, which helped the ancient humans to establish many civilizations like the Egyptian civilization. This agriculture mainly depended on the open field cultivation to produce the necessary food for human, but an urgent need was formed under the global overpopulation to produce more food using different farming systems such as soilless farming, protected cultivation, hydroponics, etc. Protected farming allows producing crops (food) under controlled conditions to modify any natural environment prevent/ restrict the plant growth and its productivity. This work focuses on the protected farming and its association with climate-smartagriculture. Protected farming has several obstacles in the developing countries especially under using the low-tech protected farming technique. Climate-smart-agriculture is an agriculture, by which its productivity can be sustainably increased, its resilience to climate change can be enhanced, and greenhouse gases can be mitigated, as well as enhances achievement of national food security and development goals. The closed relationship between protected farming and climate-smart agriculture is needed to be investigated in more research. Therefore, this work reported on protected farming and its potential against changing climate. This is also a call by Environment, Biodiversity and Soil Security (EBSS) for receiving articles on protected agriculture under climate-smart agriculture approach, their challenges, their obstacles and the novel solutions in this concern.

ANDY soils are often associated with low fertility due to their physical and chemical properties. Sandy soils have a coarse texture and large pore spaces, which allow water and nutrients to drain quickly, leaving little time for plants to absorb them. Additionally, sandy soils have a low capacity to hold nutrients, which can easily leach out of the soil with excessive watering or rainfall. This makes it difficult for plants to access the nutrients they need to grow and develop properly, leading to nutrient deficiency stress. So, the current study was designated to investigate the responses of pepper and green bean plants to various selenium (Se) forms (Nano and bulk forms) and doses (0.0, 10, 20, 30, and 40 ppm for each form) during the biofortification program under sandy soil conditions.In general, the response of studied vegetable crops had a similar behavior under such studied stress regarding all selected attributes. This response represents in increasing the studied trials of growth, and nutritional status of both crops by increasing the applied nano-Se up to 20 or 30 ppm, while bulk forms of Se at 20 ppm for both crops. The production of biofortified fruits of both green bean and pepper were not only contain high content of Se to prevent the biofortification program, but also increased the all studied attributes of crops. This study seeks to remedy the problems of cultivation of sandy soils under biofortification program by applying both mineral and nano-Se sources with propriety to the biological nano-Se. This study also opened many questions concerning the biofortification program using other vegetable crops under different stresses.