A review on positive and negative impacts of nanotechnology in agriculture

Nanotechnology holds huge potentials in several fields and is envisaged as a technology to lead the way toward sustainable environment-friendly development in the coming years. The basic theme of nanotechnology is to use particles having size in nanometer range for various applications in medical fields, cosmetics industry, and agriculture and food technologies. The benefits associated with nanotechnology include among others increase in yield and quality of produce in agriculture, improved cosmetic products, directed delivery of medicines and sensor applications. Advancement in the development of nanosensors has made recognition of disease causing elements, toxins and nutrients in foods, and elements in environmental samples, easier and cost effective. However, immense focus on nanotechnology in past few decades has led to its unrestricted development and consequently enormous use of nanoparticles (NPs). It is considered that NPs may pose risks to the environment and biological systems. It is also becoming evident that the size, structure and type of nanomaterials, such as graphene/graphene oxide with gold NPs, carbon and carbon nitride nanotubes, have different effects on plants and environment. Hence, long-term life cycle analyses are needed to assess impacts of NPs. This review presents a brief overview of applications of nanomaterials in agriculture and discusses its positive and negative aspects in agricultural field. The review emphasizes that future development of nanotechnology must be based on scientific evaluations of benefits and risks associated to it in long term.