Improving the safety and security of fruits and vegetables during COVID-19 pandemic with postharvest handling.

The COVID-19 pandemic has damaged the world's economy during 2020-2021, reduced the purchasing power of households, partially restricted international movements and trade (including food products) and damaged horticultural production. This resulted in uncertainty in the food business and caused food supply shocks. According to some scientists, business people, and politicians, this situation is a forerunner and warning for humanity to change its lifestyle by focusing on sustainable measures to prevent natural ecosystems damage. In line with this, the present review article focused on the significant impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on horticultural production and some prevention measures. It has been scientifically confirmed that the postharvest losses of fruits and vegetables reach around 10-15% in developed countries and about 20-40% in developing countries, higher in some specific crops. It is believed that reducing these losses can help the world fight food supply shocks during the COVID-19 pandemic and customary conditions to reduce the pressure on natural resources. Therefore, the present paper aimed to highlight some critical handling practices against food supply shocks.

Water footprint and irrigation use efficiency of important crops in Northern Cyprus from an environmental, economic and dietary perspective.

Availability of freshwater is currently one of the most important limiting factors for crop production and food security throughout the world. Northern Cyprus is one of the world's most important countries that has been facing drought and salinization problems since the 1970 s. The present study aimed to determine the irrigation use efficiency (IUE), irrigation economic productivity (IEP), irrigation economic efficiency (IEE) and irrigation dietary efficiency (IDE) of some major crops in Northern Cyprus to ensure better planning for sustainable water management, not only for Northern Cyprus but also for all countries facing similar problems. The results of the present study showed that both carob and fig crops require the least amount (24 L) of irrigation to produce 1 kg of fruit, and "open field" lettuce and "greenhouse" eggplant require the least amount (10 and 16 L) of irrigation to produce 1 kg of vegetables in Northern Cyprus. The irrigation economic productivity (IEP) and irrigation dietary efficiency (IDE) of crops were also found to be significantly different and meaningful for different crops. Our results showed that reshaping the distribution of crops based on their water consumption would reduce the use of water resources while continuing to feed the population.

Detection and characterization of citrus tatter leaf virus (CTLV) and citrus yellow vein clearing virus (CYVCV) in citrus trees from Cyprus.

Citrus tatter leaf virus (CTLV) was firstly reported of in California. After that, it reported in Australia, Korea, Nigeria, Japan, South Africa, and China. The transmission of this virus from plant to plant is very easy with mechanically. Citrus yellow vein clearing virus (CYVCV) was reported on lemon trees in India, Pakistan, Turkey and China. Foliar distortion, necrotic spots, chlorosis and wrinkling symptoms were observed in young lemon orchards in newly established orchards with trees imported from abroad. Therefore, surveys of citrus trees in Cyprus were performed for CTLV and CYVCV from 2013 to 2016. A total of 64 leaf samples from symptomatic citrus trees (41 lemon, 10 orange, 10 mandarin and three grapefruit samples) were collected for total nucleic acid extraction and RT-PCR with CTLV primers to amplify a 309 bp and a 614 bp fragment, respectively, of the 5' end (100%) and high nucleotide sequence identity (99%) with isolates BJNM-2 and QC4 from China and isolate BDZ-1 from Australia. To our knowledge, this is the first report of CTLV from Europe.