Nanotechnology: Advancement
for Agricultural Sustainability
Upinder and Rabindra Kumar
Abstract
Nanotechnology plays a vital role in agriculture for food
production, security, and safety. Due to sensing, applicability of nanotechnology include the use of fertilizers to
enhance food production, pesticides for pest, and disease
management for monitoring soil quality and plant health.
To improve the sustainability of agricultural practice,
there is incorporation of nanomaterials in it as nanopesticides, nonfertilizer, and nanosensors. To suppress crop
disease by requiring less input and generating less waste
than conventional products, there is the use of nanoscale
nutrients (metals, metal oxides, carbon) for subsequent
enhancement of plant growth and yield. Directing this
enhanced yield not only reduce growth of pathogens but
also increase the nutritional value of the nanoparticles
themselves, for the essential micronutrients that are
necessary for host defense. We also posit that these
positive effects are the greater availability of the nutrients
in the ‘‘nano’’ form for disease-controlled plant yield.
Keeping these points of view, we offer comments on the
current regulatory perspective for such applications with
the increased demand to agricultural field. This book
chapter focused on engineered nanoparticles and naturally
occurring nanoparticles for identifying their nanoscale
properties in the agriculture fields.
Keywords
Engineered nanoparticles Á Nonfertilizer Á
Nanopesticides Á Nanosensors Á Sustainable agriculture
1 Introduction
In sustainable agriculture, sensing and selective potentiality
of nanotechnology plays important role in global food production (Rodrigues et al. 2017), food security (Hosseini et al.
2010), and food safety (Ali et al. 2018). Natural nanomaterials (NMs) followed the specific mechanisms to reduce its
harmful effects on living organisms surviving in its
ecosystem (Bernhardt et al. 2010). Under the research,
advancement to reduce acute toxic effects of potential hazards of engineered NMs in living beings there has put the
light over extensive research of nanotoxicology and strict
laws of government to identify and avoid toxic nanoparticles
(NPs) (Shrader-Frechette 2007). Having these unique properties with enhanced potential, development of engineered
nanoparticles (ENPs) have raised considerable concerns with
plants, as well as with other components of all ecosystems.
The ENP interaction with plants varies, depending on
plant anatomy and its potentiality to transport through the
vascular system from root to shoot part of the plant. Based
on the literature review, the surface activity of ENPs on
phytotoxicity to enhance crop yield and minimize
disease-causing factors within the plant species has been
thoroughly described. Under such interaction, it is prominent
to say that agriculture is not an unseen sector in our life
because of its better yield with disease-free products playing
an essential role in the living world. On the other hand,
agricultural productivity is facing unsolved problems
because of insufficient space, disease, and change in
agro-climate conditions. Moreover, with the rapid population growth and reducing/deteriorating environmental
resources, there is a strong need of producing more by using
less (Singh et al. 2019). This demand needs to adopt innovative technologies such as nanotechnology (Tilman et al.
2002; Singh et al. 2019). We are having remarkable properties such as less than 100 nm size of the materials considered as nanomaterial showing the abilities of signaling by
fluorescence, optical activities, etc. (Giraldo et al. 2019).
Upinder (&)
Department of Chemistry, D. A. V. College, Bathinda, India
e-mail: kaurreet604@gmail.com
R. Kumar
Central Instrumentation Laboratory, Central University of Punjab,
Bathinda, India
e-mail: rabindrabiochem@gmail.com
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
P. Singh et al. (eds.), Plant-Microbes-Engineered Nano-particles (PM-ENPs) Nexus in Agro-Ecosystems,
Advances in Science, Technology & Innovation,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66956-0_2
19
for Agricultural Sustainability
Upinder and Rabindra Kumar
Abstract
Nanotechnology plays a vital role in agriculture for food
production, security, and safety. Due to sensing, applicability of nanotechnology include the use of fertilizers to
enhance food production, pesticides for pest, and disease
management for monitoring soil quality and plant health.
To improve the sustainability of agricultural practice,
there is incorporation of nanomaterials in it as nanopesticides, nonfertilizer, and nanosensors. To suppress crop
disease by requiring less input and generating less waste
than conventional products, there is the use of nanoscale
nutrients (metals, metal oxides, carbon) for subsequent
enhancement of plant growth and yield. Directing this
enhanced yield not only reduce growth of pathogens but
also increase the nutritional value of the nanoparticles
themselves, for the essential micronutrients that are
necessary for host defense. We also posit that these
positive effects are the greater availability of the nutrients
in the ‘‘nano’’ form for disease-controlled plant yield.
Keeping these points of view, we offer comments on the
current regulatory perspective for such applications with
the increased demand to agricultural field. This book
chapter focused on engineered nanoparticles and naturally
occurring nanoparticles for identifying their nanoscale
properties in the agriculture fields.
Keywords
Engineered nanoparticles Á Nonfertilizer Á
Nanopesticides Á Nanosensors Á Sustainable agriculture
1 Introduction
In sustainable agriculture, sensing and selective potentiality
of nanotechnology plays important role in global food production (Rodrigues et al. 2017), food security (Hosseini et al.
2010), and food safety (Ali et al. 2018). Natural nanomaterials (NMs) followed the specific mechanisms to reduce its
harmful effects on living organisms surviving in its
ecosystem (Bernhardt et al. 2010). Under the research,
advancement to reduce acute toxic effects of potential hazards of engineered NMs in living beings there has put the
light over extensive research of nanotoxicology and strict
laws of government to identify and avoid toxic nanoparticles
(NPs) (Shrader-Frechette 2007). Having these unique properties with enhanced potential, development of engineered
nanoparticles (ENPs) have raised considerable concerns with
plants, as well as with other components of all ecosystems.
The ENP interaction with plants varies, depending on
plant anatomy and its potentiality to transport through the
vascular system from root to shoot part of the plant. Based
on the literature review, the surface activity of ENPs on
phytotoxicity to enhance crop yield and minimize
disease-causing factors within the plant species has been
thoroughly described. Under such interaction, it is prominent
to say that agriculture is not an unseen sector in our life
because of its better yield with disease-free products playing
an essential role in the living world. On the other hand,
agricultural productivity is facing unsolved problems
because of insufficient space, disease, and change in
agro-climate conditions. Moreover, with the rapid population growth and reducing/deteriorating environmental
resources, there is a strong need of producing more by using
less (Singh et al. 2019). This demand needs to adopt innovative technologies such as nanotechnology (Tilman et al.
2002; Singh et al. 2019). We are having remarkable properties such as less than 100 nm size of the materials considered as nanomaterial showing the abilities of signaling by
fluorescence, optical activities, etc. (Giraldo et al. 2019).
Upinder (&)
Department of Chemistry, D. A. V. College, Bathinda, India
e-mail: kaurreet604@gmail.com
R. Kumar
Central Instrumentation Laboratory, Central University of Punjab,
Bathinda, India
e-mail: rabindrabiochem@gmail.com
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
P. Singh et al. (eds.), Plant-Microbes-Engineered Nano-particles (PM-ENPs) Nexus in Agro-Ecosystems,
Advances in Science, Technology & Innovation,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66956-0_2
19