David Francisco Lafuente-Rincon

Soil–Forage–Livestock systems (SFL-systems) integration is fundamental for sustainable land management in arid lands, where conventional crop production is often unfeasible. Aridisols dominate dryland agroecosystems and their edaphic constraints, together with climatic limitations, constitute a major bottleneck for fertility and productivity in key arid regions worldwide. This narrative review provides a taxonomic and edaphic framework to guide sustainable SFL-systems and integrates current approaches and technological applications for forage production in arid environments, focusing on an edaphic-digital scheme that combines organic and inorganic soil amendments with AI-based decision support to improve Aridisols productivity and resilience. Searches of the literature (ScienceDirect, EBSCOhost, Clarivate Web of Science; English, 2021–2025) screened 309 records and selected 169 references; seminal older works were consulted for context. Representative quantitative outcomes from the reviewed literature include SOC increases of ~15–30% after multi-year organic inputs; forage biomass gains of ~10–25% following amendments that correct sodicity; and water-productivity improvements up to ~30% with hydrogels or biochar. AI tools can improve soil diagnostics and amendment selection (diagnostic accuracy improvements of ~15–30% in recent studies) and generate predictive models of amendment–response that facilitate optimization of application rates and water use. The novel contribution of this review is the explicit linkage of SFL-systems and amendment-based soil restoration with AI-driven diagnostics and decision support, providing actionable metrics and research priorities to translate digital diagnostics into measurable forage gains in arid and semi-arid regions. Overall, the evidence suggests that targeted soil restoration, reinforced by AI-based support systems, is a feasible strategy to increase forage availability and ecosystem service provision in drylands.

The application of zinc oxide nanoparticles prepared by green synthesis (GS-ZnONPs) has demonstrated essential benefits in boosting the clean and sustainable production of agricultural crops worldwide. In this part of the study we evaluate the effect of GS-ZnONPs foliar spraying on the yield, nutraceutical quality, capsaicin concentration, and antioxidant metabolism of chili fruit (Capsicum annuum L., CHISER-522 variety) grown under greenhouse conditions. GS-ZnONPs treatments were applied at concentrations of 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 ppm every 15 days post-transplant, with the control group treated only with distilled water. The results indicated that treatments with 40 and 50 ppm of GS-ZnONPs significantly improved fruit yield, length, and fruit amount. At the same time, the concentrations of 30 and 40 ppm significantly increased the levels of vitamin C, bioactive compounds, and antioxidant capacity, indicating a better nutraceutical quality of the fruit. In addition, an increase in the catalase activity and the content of macro and micro-minerals in the fruit treated with GS-ZnONPs was observed. Our results suggest that the foliar application of GS-ZnONPs acts as a nanobioestimulant, offering an excellent biotechnological tool for developing agroecological strategies to increase the nutraceutical and antioxidant quality of chili pepper fruit.