# Influence of Atmospheric Pollutants and Weather Conditions on Agricultural Productivity in Italy
## 1 Introduction
highlight the crucial role of urban vegetation in air phytoremediation, emphasizing the gap between scientific research and environmental management perspectives [16]. Rain has a strong influence on the aero-dispersed pollutants and on plant growth. With rains, plants activate a series of chemical processes to prevent water from causing damage to the leaves or the plant surface. With an excessive amount of water, vegetation undergoes a process known as radical asphyxia, that is, it is unable to correctly exchange gases with the atmosphere and absorb all the necessary nutrients it needs to live. For this reason, it is necessary to include information relating to rain and any relevant meteorological events in the analyses of the pollutants' effects [17]. Information on pollutant levels can be obtained by strategically implementing air quality monitoring networks next to agricultural sites [18]. They allow the reliable measurement of airborne pollutants with different IoT-based technologies [19; 20; 21], and the information obtained from the pollutants' measurement can be used for the forecasting space-time models definition and the analysis of accidental events [22; 23; 24]. Technologically advanced air quality monitoring systems also integrate instruments for meteorological parameters measurements such as temperature, pressure, relative humidity, rainfall, and wind direction and intensity, which are fundamental both for analyzing the effects on crops and for the definition of emission sources research models [25]. The diffusion of new technologies has led the agri-food sector--which constitutes an increasingly important part of the Italian economy--to important transformations. These technologies such as the internet of things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) can make a difference and contribute to a further evolution of this sector, driving it towards Agriculture 4.0 and 5.0 solutions for mapping and remote monitoring of crops or agricultural machinery, and for business management [22]. Research in the agricultural sector has focused in recent years on researching the influence of pollutants on crops. However, the pollutantsconsidered are related to the use of pesticides, fertilizers [23], and emissions relating to the combustion of agricultural residues [24], but studies using measured air quality data are lacking. The aim of the work is therefore to verify if there are significant effects of pollutants on the growth of cereal crops in some Italian cities which represent the national territory. The data relating to the pollutant levels were obtained from measurement systems installed on the territory. This work reports the analysis carried out according to the crop cycle. In detail, for durum and common wheat, it has been referred to the October/June period while for corn to the April/November period. In fact, in the months considered, the sowing, growth, and consequent harvesting of the considered cereals takes place. Subsequently, the influence of rain was considered, using monthly rainfall data to verify the effect on crops in the periods considered. Similar consideration was made regarding the analysis of pollutants; therefore, the concentration values used for the ANOVA analysis are reported as the averages calculated for the growth periods considered for the crops.