The Potential of Using Chitosan on Cereal Crops in the Face of Climate Change

This review presents the main findings from measurements carried out on cereals using chitosan, its derivatives, and nanoparticles. Research into the use of chitosan in agriculture is growing in popularity. Since 2000, 188 original scientific articles indexed in Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar databases have been published on this topic. These have focused mainly on wheat (34.3%), maize (26.3%), and rice (24.2%). It was shown that research on other cereals such as millets and sorghum is scarce and should be expanded to better understand the impact of chitosan use. This review demonstrates that this chitosan is highly effective against the most dangerous diseases and pathogens for cereals. Furthermore, it also contributes to improving yield and chlorophyll content, as well as some plant growth parameters. Additionally, it induces excellent resistance to drought, salt, and low temperature stress and reduces their negative impact on cereals. However, further studies are needed to demonstrate the full field efficacy of chitosan.