Fabricated Nanofertilizers: A Clean and Feasible Substitute for Conventional Fertilizers

The rising population, leading to the decline in cultivable land and water resources, creates a need in agriculture for greater food production efficiency. Fertilizers have been discovered to play a significant role in enhancing food supply, particularly with the advent of crop types that are receptive to fertilizers and produce a high yield. At the same time, conventional fertilizers are also susceptible to a variety of losses, including leaching, fixation, denitrification, and volatilization. Due to the widespread use of chemical fertilizers and current agricultural techniques, managing the soil’s fertility and nutrients for crops will present the biggest challenge in the coming years. On the contrary, nanofertilizers (NFs) are a sustainable alternate crop production practice to enhance food output as well as bring environmental and economic viability. Because of the unique properties of nanomaterials, such as high surface area to volume ratio, controlled-release kinetics of nutrients to specified areas, and absorption capacity, they have become critical in the designing and utilization of new fertilizers. Nanofertilizers primarily prolong nutrient release and boost the fertilizer effect period and have thus created new prospects by ensuring global food security, enhancing input efficiency, lowering prices, and mitigating environmental deterioration. Nanofertilizers, aiming to optimize the flow of nutrients based on crop needs while simultaneously limiting differential losses, offer enormous potential in the field of agriculture. These “smart fertilizers” are increasingly seen as a promising option, to the point that they should be preferred over conventional fertilizers. As a result, the purpose of this chapter is to emphasize nanofertilizers and their effects on crop productivity.