Research Article Received: 5 November 2020 Revised: 28 December 2020 Accepted article published: 9 January 2021 Published online in Wiley Online Library: (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI 10.1002/jsfa.11088 Yield and quality of Amaranthus hypochondriacus grain amaranth under drought and salinity at various phenological stages in southern Italy Cataldo Pulvento, a †* Mohamed houssemeddine Sellami b † and Antonella Lavini b Abstract BACKGROUND: Several studies have shown that grain amaranth (Amaranthus spp.) is tolerant to abiotic stresses such as drought and salinity. Irrigation applied only during sensitive growth stages can stabilize yield and improve water use efficiency. Given the increasing frequency of salinity and drought stress in European countries and the scarcity of information on grain amaranth responses to combined salt and drought stress, an open field trial was carried out in Italy in order to evaluate the response of one accession of Amaranthus hypochondriacus to various irrigation strategies. RESULTS: Grain amaranth yield components were not negatively affected either by different irrigation volumes or by irrigation time. Some differences in seed yield were caused by water quality; salinity significantly reduced seed yield. The combined effect of irrigation time and irrigation volume significantly influenced seed yield. The quality of amaranth seeds was preserved; no significant differences due to simple or combined stresses were found during the three-year field experiment. CONCLUSIONS: The overall results from this study suggest that A. hypochondriacus can be cultivated in a more sustainable way compared to other protein crops, thus reducing water use and using saline water. It could be introduced to marginal European environments where traditional crops cannot be cultivated. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry Keywords: grain amaranth; deficit irrigation; phenological stages; abiotic stresses; seed yield; seed quality INTRODUCTION Freshwater scarcity is becoming an ever-increasing problem, pri- marily in arid and semi-arid regions of the world. Europe is not a dry continent but freshwater supplies are nowadays becoming a concern; 11% of the population and 17% of the land are affected by increasing water scarcity in the EU. 1,2 Almost 668 km 3 of water is annually consumed in the EU for production, consumption and exports, more than one-third of this water being related to imported goods. 3 Agriculture is the most prominent sector for water consumption in the world and its impact is exacerbated by climate change. Cli- mate model projections predict an ever-increasing drought risk for southern Europe. 4 In the Mediterranean area, among the most damaging effects for agriculture caused by water scarcity is soil secondary saliniza- tion; in coastal areas, the summer overexploitation of phreatic wells by farmers for irrigation purposes causes a decrease in the groundwater table level and then the subsequent intrusion of seawater. 5 Another important factor to be considered is the water footprint of food consumption in the EU; the current diet of Europeans is characterized by overconsumption of animal food that is associated with high water footprints. Water footprint for plant proteins is six times lower than beef water footprint. 6 Plant protein-based production processes are more efficient since they require fewer inputs in terms of water, soil and nitrogen com- pared to meat protein-based production processes. The project PROTEIN2FOOD, funded within the 8th EU frame- work program funding research (Horizon 2020), aimed at devel- oping innovative, cost-effective, resource-efficient, locally produced, healthy plant proteins for human consumption, together with a positive impact on bio-economy, environment, biodiversity, human health, food security and social innovation. 7 * Correspondence to: C Pulvento, National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Institute for Biosciences and Bioresources (IBBR), Via Amendola 165/A, I-70126 Bari, Italy. E-mail: cataldo.pulvento@cnr.it † Should be considered joint first authors. a National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Institute for Biosciences and Biore- sources (IBBR), Bari, Italy b National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Institute for Agricultural and Forestry Systems in the Mediterranean (ISAFOM), Portici, Italy J Sci Food Agric 2021 www.soci.org © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry 1