Nanotechnological Interventions Biotic and Abiotic Stress Management

Global production must cover the food demand of a population estimated at 8.6 billion people by 2030. However, climate change represents a significant obstacle to achieving this goal, due to its negative impact on the productivity of economically important crops and environmental imbalance. Moreover, due to the climate change, food production has been affected by different kinds of stress such as prolonged droughts, floods, soil salinity, increased extreme temperatures, and the emergence of new pests and diseases which compromise global food security. In this context, the search for innovative tools and technologies that allow improving the efficiency of agricultural systems becomes essential. Nanotechnology is an alternative that can provide promising strategies to face agricultural challenges, guaranteeing current and future food demand. Although plants have developed their own mechanisms throughout evolution to face various biotic and abiotic stress conditions, these can often exceed the natural defence capacity of plants and are not sufficient to guarantee optimal growth and development, consequently reducing yields. This chapter describes how the use of nanoparticles, due to their unique properties, have shown great potential to help plants combat agricultural problems such as nutrient deficiencies, promote stress tolerance, and improve the quality of physiological parameters in crops. Additionally exploring the role that nanotechnology has toward Agriculture 4.0 to optimize agricultural processes for management stress.