Sustainable nitrogen (N) fertilization and mulch management must reconcile pepper productivity with water scarcity, nutrient losses and plastic-waste burdens in semi-arid irrigated agroecosystems. This critical narrative review examines the independent and combined effects of N supply, plastic mulch-ing and drip fertigation in Capsicum annuum and assesses the transferability of published results to paprika-type Niora production in Morocco's Tadla region. Studies published between 1977 and 2025, identified through Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar and relevant regional sources, were compared qualitatively according to cultivar, soil N supply, cli-mate, irrigation regime, mulch material, measured endpoints and experimental design. The synthesis distinguishes direct pepper experiments from cross-crop meta-analyses and separates measured out-comes from hypotheses for Niora; no pooled effect size was calculated. Reported N responses were strongly context-dependent: a field paprika trial favored 50 kg N ha⁻¹, while a Mediterranean processing-pepper trial found no yield advantage above 120 kg N ha⁻¹ when initial soil mineral N exceeded 100 kg N ha⁻¹. The much higher response thresholds reported in other soils therefore cannot be treated as transferable optima. In individual pepper experiments, plastic mulch increased yield by approximately 40% to more than 100% relative to the respective unmulched controls; responses depended on baseline water limitation and root-zone temperature. Combined-management studies suggest potential gains from synchronizing N delivery with water availability, but few fully isolate the N × mulch interaction or quantify nitrate drainage and plastic-residue bur-dens. The principal synthesis is a conditional management framework: nitrogen demand must be interpreted against soil N supply; mulch benefits depend on whether water conservation outweighs heat stress; and improved agronomic efficiency does not by itself establish lower environmental impact. No culti-var-specific factorial N × mulch evidence was identified for Niora. The review thus identifies evidence-based boundaries for interpretation and a comparative framework for studying dry-fruit yield, paprika quality, irrigation-water productivity, nitrogen recovery, residual nitrate and mulch end-of-life in semi-arid systems.