9.4 Conclusions
Nanotechnology plays a role in agriculture, food processing and packaging, food
security and water purification, environmental remediation, crop improvement, and
plant protection. Nanotechnology has the potential of precise delivery of agrochemicals for improving disease resistance, plant growth, and nutrient use.
Nanoencapsulated products show the ability of more effective and site-specific use
of pesticides, insecticides, and herbicides in an eco-friendly greener way. It is
successfully used in postharvest for maintaining freshness, quality, and shelf life
of stored product and check disease occurrences in a fairly safer way. The use of
nanomaterials is quite new in agriculture and it requires additional research. Social
and ethical repercussions of nanotechnology uses in agriculture have to be considered. Before commercialization and field application, toxicity of nanomaterials has
to be evaluated. Nanomaterials may impose negative effects to ecosystem, environment, and humans’ health. The possible risks related with released nanomaterials
into the ecosystem are quiet vague as perceived by scientists. With advancement in
technologies, huge amount of engineered nanomaterials are released into the environment by consumer and commercial commodities. Current vital constraint in
application in agriculture is production scale and associated cost. Huge manufacturing of nanomaterials and its efficient use in agriculture will reduce the cost to a
radical range.
The potential application of nanomaterials in different agricultural applications
needs further research investigation with respect to synthesis, toxicology, and its
effective application at field level. In the field of agriculture, there are still many
possibilities to explore with new nanoproducts and techniques. Despite these potential advantages of nanotechnology, agricultural applications are very few as compared to other industrial sectors. The success in agriculture is primarily claimed by
academic sector. Public opinion and proper regulatory mechanism are very much
required for its success at field level. Various regulatory bodies should be involved in
safety assessment. Proper labeling on nanoproduct may give negative connotations
for a new technology. Consumers may reject nanoproducts after seeing labels. Some
studies on consumer preferences demonstrated the overall negative public opinion
for nanotechnology. Agro-nanotech pioneering goods are suffering difficulties in
getting market, making agriculture still a borderline sector for nanotechnology. This
is because of high production costs of nanotechnology-based products, which are
requisite in great volumes in the agricultural segment, uncertain technical profits,
and legislative doubts, in addition to public opinion. However, the research and
development scopes are very hopeful, and the prospects offered by nanotechnology
in numerous agricultural uses are being vigorously explored. Moreover, nanotechnology is developing at rapid speed in other arenas. The information achieved in
other developing sectors, for example, energy and packaging, may be used, or may
deliver spillovers, to agricultural uses too. Precision farming becomes highly
advanced and accurate when we choose for synergistic approach of using smart
nanosensors, wireless sensor networks with smart dust sensors, ambient intelligence,
342
P. Pramanik et al.
Nanotechnology plays a role in agriculture, food processing and packaging, food
security and water purification, environmental remediation, crop improvement, and
plant protection. Nanotechnology has the potential of precise delivery of agrochemicals for improving disease resistance, plant growth, and nutrient use.
Nanoencapsulated products show the ability of more effective and site-specific use
of pesticides, insecticides, and herbicides in an eco-friendly greener way. It is
successfully used in postharvest for maintaining freshness, quality, and shelf life
of stored product and check disease occurrences in a fairly safer way. The use of
nanomaterials is quite new in agriculture and it requires additional research. Social
and ethical repercussions of nanotechnology uses in agriculture have to be considered. Before commercialization and field application, toxicity of nanomaterials has
to be evaluated. Nanomaterials may impose negative effects to ecosystem, environment, and humans’ health. The possible risks related with released nanomaterials
into the ecosystem are quiet vague as perceived by scientists. With advancement in
technologies, huge amount of engineered nanomaterials are released into the environment by consumer and commercial commodities. Current vital constraint in
application in agriculture is production scale and associated cost. Huge manufacturing of nanomaterials and its efficient use in agriculture will reduce the cost to a
radical range.
The potential application of nanomaterials in different agricultural applications
needs further research investigation with respect to synthesis, toxicology, and its
effective application at field level. In the field of agriculture, there are still many
possibilities to explore with new nanoproducts and techniques. Despite these potential advantages of nanotechnology, agricultural applications are very few as compared to other industrial sectors. The success in agriculture is primarily claimed by
academic sector. Public opinion and proper regulatory mechanism are very much
required for its success at field level. Various regulatory bodies should be involved in
safety assessment. Proper labeling on nanoproduct may give negative connotations
for a new technology. Consumers may reject nanoproducts after seeing labels. Some
studies on consumer preferences demonstrated the overall negative public opinion
for nanotechnology. Agro-nanotech pioneering goods are suffering difficulties in
getting market, making agriculture still a borderline sector for nanotechnology. This
is because of high production costs of nanotechnology-based products, which are
requisite in great volumes in the agricultural segment, uncertain technical profits,
and legislative doubts, in addition to public opinion. However, the research and
development scopes are very hopeful, and the prospects offered by nanotechnology
in numerous agricultural uses are being vigorously explored. Moreover, nanotechnology is developing at rapid speed in other arenas. The information achieved in
other developing sectors, for example, energy and packaging, may be used, or may
deliver spillovers, to agricultural uses too. Precision farming becomes highly
advanced and accurate when we choose for synergistic approach of using smart
nanosensors, wireless sensor networks with smart dust sensors, ambient intelligence,
342
P. Pramanik et al.