Low-dose stress promotes sustainable food production

Abstract

By maintaining stress factors under optimal low-dose levels, plant performance and productivity can be increased and postharvest produce quality can be improved. Hence, for a sustainable food production, plant stress should not be feared but systematically monitored and embraced. Numerous chemicals as well as stressors have both favorable and unfavorable consequences for plant performance and health in a dose-dependent manner, and here we discuss implications of these phenomena for the practice of sustainable agriculture.