Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) production in irrigated coarse-textured soils requires intensive nitrogen (N) fertilization which may increase reactive N losses. Biological soil additives including N-fixing microbes (NFM) have been promoted as a means to increase crop N use efficiency, though few field studies have evaluated their effects, and none have examined the combined use of NFM with microbial inhibitors. A 2-year study (2018–19) in an irrigated loamy sand quantified the effects of the urease inhibitor NBPT, the nitrification inhibitor DMPSA, NFM, and the additive combinations DMPSA + NBPT and DMPSA + NFM on potato performance and growing season nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions and nitrate (NO₃⁻) leaching. All treatments, except a zero-N control, received diammonium phosphate at 45 kg N ha⁻¹ and split applied urea at 280 kg N ha⁻¹. Compared with urea alone, DMPSA + NBPT reduced NO₃⁻ leaching and N₂O emissions by 25% and 62%, respectively, and increased crop N uptake by 19% in one year, although none of the additive treatments increased tuber yields. The DMPSA and DMPSA + NBPT treatments had greater soil ammonium concentration, and all DMPSA-containing treatments consistently reduced N₂O emissions, compared to urea-only. Use of NBPT by itself reduced NO₃⁻ leaching by 21% across growing seasons and N₂O emissions by 37% in 2018 relative to urea-only. In contrast to the inhibitors, NFM by itself increased N₂O by 23% in 2019; however, co-applying DMPSA with NFM reduced N₂O emissions by ≥ 50% compared to urea alone. These results demonstrate that DMPSA can mitigate N₂O emissions in potato production systems and that DMPSA + NBPT can reduce both N₂O and NO₃⁻ losses and increase the N supply for crop uptake. This is the first study to show that combining a nitrification inhibitor with NFM can result in decreased N₂O emissions in contrast to unintended increases in N₂O emissions that can occur when NFM is applied by itself.

Soil contamination with antibiotics and antibiotic resistant bacteria/genes (ARB/ARGs) has becoming an emerging environmental problem. Moreover, the mixed pollutants' transfer and accumulation from soil to tuberous vegetables has posed a great threat against food security and human health. In this work, the application of two absorbing materials (maize biochar and sulfate modified eggshell) was able to reduce the poisonous effect of soil antibiotics on potato root system by stimulate the dissipation of water-soluble antibiotics in soil; and also improve food quality by increasing potato starch, protein, fat, and vitamins. Meanwhile, both amendments could effectively decrease the classes and the accumulative abundance of ARB and ARGs (sulI, sulII, catI, catII, ermA, ermB) in the edible parts of potato. The lowest abundance of ARGs was detected in the biochar application treatment, with the accumulative ARG level of 8.9 × 10² and 7.2 × 10² copies mL⁻¹ in potato peel (sull + catI + ermA) and tuberous root (sulI), respectively. It is the first study to demonstrate the feasibility of biochar and eggshell derived from agricultural wastes as green absorbing materials to reduce soil antibiotic, ARB, and ARGs accumulation risk in tuberous vegetable.

Groundwater is the most common source of drinking and irrigation in the world. As a result of human activities and natural processes, fluoride (F⁻) levels have increased in most groundwater supplies in the recent decades. Excessive F⁻ in the potable water is a serious health problem in rural areas of many developing countries. Hence, there is an urgent need to identify its accumulation and toxicity into the food chain, and further find a simple and cost-effective method for soil and water defluoridation in such areas. In this regard, a pot experiment was conducted to investigate F⁻ uptake, accumulation, and toxic effects on two varieties of Solanum tuberosum (Kufri Jyoti and Kufri Sindhuri). A comparative study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of different sources (soil and water) of F⁻ contamination on its uptake by the plant. Five different levels of soil and water contamination were used. F⁻ concentration in both varieties was in the following order: root > shoot > tuber (with peel) > tuber (without peel) with the increase in F⁻ concentration in both soil and water. Furthermore, the decrease in biomass yield and all analyzed biochemical parameters in both varieties was observed with increasing F⁻ concentration in soil and water. Hence, appropriate preventative steps must be adopted to reduce the health risk in the selected area.