A composition and method to mitigate plant autophagy and/or apoptosis of newly developing cells in plants grown under environmentally stressful growing conditions. Exogenous application of a cytokinin, preferably kinetin, to the foliage of plants has been discovered to overcome, or at least mitigate, autophagy when applied during or just prior to flowering. Several provided examples show that, in laboratory and field experiments, exogenous foliar application of cytokinin to the leaves and flowers of plants lessened cytokinin deficiencies in plant tissues grown in high temperatures, thereby mitigating autophagy and apoptosis and greatly enhancing seed/crop production. The application of low concentrations of potassium together with the cytokinin appears to provide a synergistic effect by amplifying the effect of the cytokinin to lessen autophagy and increase crop productivity.