Transforming Agriculture with Nanotechnology: Mitigating Environmental Impact and Ensuring Global Food Security
摘要
Agriculture is not only pivotal for the economies of developing nations but also for food security and sustenance worldwide. Global climate change imposes significant challenges to agricultural systems, affecting both biotic and abiotic components of ecosystems. Current agricultural practices often entail environmental costs, including soil degradation, water contamination, and greenhouse gas emissions. Addressing these challenges necessitates a multifaceted approach that encompasses adaptation and mitigation strategies like developing stress-tolerant crop varieties or implementing sustainable agricultural practices. Integrating nanotechnology with agriculture offers a smart and promising avenue. The chapter aims to provide a comprehensive conspectus of nano-fertilizers wherein the essential minerals and nutrients are bonded to nano-dimensional adsorbents and have various advantages over conventional fertilizers. They can improve nutrient uptake efficiency, reduce nutrient leaching and runoff, and enhance crop productivity by delivering nutrients in a controlled and targeted manner, thus minimizing waste and environmental impact. Additionally, nano-sized particles can be engineered to release nutrients slowly over time, ensuring a sustained nutrient supply to crops. However, it is imperative to approach this integration of nanotechnology in agriculture cautiously, considering potential environmental and health implications, thus necessitating research on this area. Overall, “nano-omics” holds great potential for revolutionizing agriculture by providing novel and innovative solutions to enhance crop productivity, sustainability, resilience in the face of climate change, and other environmental challenges, thereby promoting food security. The present work also provides an overview of the variety of nanoparticles that have been tested for their effects on plant growth.