Materials Science World Congress

The new nanomaterials in agriculture are envisioned to change the agricultural industry in generating innovative means to increase crop yields, use fewer natural resources, and improve environmental sustainability. In many ways, nanotechnology can bring a solution in developing more efficient yet sustainable farms, especially when the world faces increasing food demands and other climate-related issues.

Agro-based nanomaterials are used in the form of nano-fertilizers and nano-pesticides and in nanomaterial forms applied directly on soils that enhance health. For instance, nano-fertilizers are prepared to better supply nutrients. Another thing is that usual fertilizers have a main drawback: they are strongly subject to leaching or volatilization and they lose a great amount of nutrients. On the other hand, nano-fertilizers provide slow releases of the nutrient directly to the plant roots with increased uptakes through the crop and reduced ecosystem contamination. The end result is improved crop yields without undue harm towards its surrounding ecosystems. On the other hand, nano-pesticides focus more on pest control to an exponentially higher level.

The conventional pesticides are the environmental pollutants since the application exposes the non-target species to poisoning and contaminates the water bodies. Nanopesticides can be engineered in such a way that they target only pests; thus, the overall application of chemicals is less, which in turn reduces the chances of environmental pollution. The slow-release characteristics of nano-pesticides provide protection to crops from pest attack for a long time and the application frequency can be reduced significantly. Nanomaterials can also be used for creating healthier soil. Some nanomaterials may increase the water-holding capacity of soil and also increase the availability of nutrients to the crops. They may even stimulate beneficial activity amongst microorganisms. These applications bring about overall health in agricultural soils and make better resource management possible at the farmer's end through efficient utilization of water and fertilizers towards more sustainable farming practices.

As a whole, in the general sense of precision agriculture, sustainable nanomaterials will play a critical role in coming up with smart systems of farming. This will be brought about by integration of nanotechnology with sensing and data-driven tools monitoring soil conditions, plants' health, and other environmental factors in an efficacious manner. It will therefore offer site-specific interventions that further enhance the use of resources and increase sustainability.

Those sustainable nanomaterials open floodgates of new innovation into agriculture, not just effective but environmentally friendly solutions to basic agricultural challenges through targeted delivery systems.