Sustainable Field Management and the Postharvest Quality Continuum in Agronomic Crop Production

1.3 BackgroundGlobal crop production must adapt to increasingly variable climates and tightening water and land constraints, while still meeting rising demand for high-quality produce. Much of the agronomic literature treats field management and product quality as separate research tracks: agronomists optimize water use, cropping systems and cultivar choice for yield, while postharvest scientists study quality independently once the crop reaches the packhouse. Yet irrigation regime, cropping system design, nutrient management and the timing and method of harvest all leave a physiological signature — in cellular water status, carbohydrate partitioning, hormonal balance, and stress-response pathways — that determines nutritional value, sensory quality and shelf-life. This Research Topic is concerned with that physiological signature itself, not simply with correlating a management input to a quality output: we are looking for the mechanistic link that explains why a given field-level choice changes the harvested product, not only that it does. Without research that follows this mechanism across the whole production cycle, growers and breeders lack the physiological evidence needed to make field-level decisions with quality, not just yield.1.4 GoalThis Research Topic aims to gather research connecting sustainable field management, excluding nutrient/fertilization-specific studies covered elsewhere, with the physiological basis of harvested product quality. We welcome contributions on irrigation regimes, cropping system diversification (intercropping, rotation, cover cropping), genotype-by-environment interactions, and climate adaptation strategies, examined for the physiological mechanisms linking these practices to product quality rather than for yield or descriptive quality scores alone. Unlike topics addressing abiotic-stress signalling pathways or general preharvest-to-postharvest handling protocols, this Research Topic's distinguishing focus is the field-management decision itself as the starting point, and the physiological pathway it triggers as the object of study. We are particularly interested in work that follows a single management variable through to its physiological mechanism and a measurable quality or shelf-life outcome, and in decision-support or modelling approaches — grounded in that physiological understanding — that help growers anticipate quality consequences of field-level choices before harvest.1.5 Scope and Information for Authors We invite Original Research, Reviews, Mini Reviews, Perspectives and Methods articles addressing, but not limited to:• Irrigation regimes and water-deficit strategies, and the physiological mechanisms linking them to harvested product quality• Cropping system diversification (intercropping, rotation, cover cropping) for resource-use efficiency and quality outcomes• Genotype-by-environment interactions affecting quality traits, independent of nutrient input• Climate-smart and precision agriculture approaches linking field adaptation to product quality• Harvest timing, method, and handling practices, and the physiological basis of their effect on postharvest performance• Modelling or decision-support tools predicting quality outcomes from agronomic management choices• Studies spanning the continuum from field management to postharvest handling, across food, feed, or horticultural crops Topic editors: Naeem Ahmad, Othmane MERAH Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/86374/sustainable-field-management-and-the-postharvest-quality-continuum-in-agronomic-crop-production