Plant Nanonutrients for Sustainable Agriculture

As the world’s population is increasing day by day, there is clear demand to increase crop productivity immensely for global food security. So, for sustainable agriculture, nanotechnological intervention is needed. The quality of agricultural lands is depleting due to excessive use of chemical fertilizers and dumping of hazardous industrial wastes into the environment. Nanomaterials or nanoparticles (NPs) have emerged as excellent agricultural amendments for nutrition management in crop plants. The application of nanoparticles improves the growth of plants through the release of nutrients slowly and steadily. Besides this, NPs can also be used as pesticides, herbicides, bactericides, fungicides, and nematicides, and for improving abiotic stress tolerance in plants. However, nanoparticles also have negative impacts on life-forms. The toxicity of nanomaterials depends on their structure and dose. Due to their high reactivity and variability, biological, chemical, and physical transformations occur in the environment, thus inducing nanotoxicity in agroecosystems. Therefore, the impact of nanomaterials on the environment and human health should be carefully studied before use in agriculture.