Agriculture nanotechnology: Translating research outcome to field applications by influencing environmental sustainability

Amongst many projected applications, nanotechnology has the ability to revolutionize agro-food sector. With the current global population reaching close to 7 billion, many developing countries are facing the problem of food shortages. Agriculture nanotechnology, with its possible applications in providing ranging from better food quality to minimization of agriculture inputs, can significantly enhance crop productivity. Nanotechnology can contribute to agro-food sector with novel tools viz., disease diagnosis and management, nanocide-pesticide delivery including green pesticides and biopesticides, slow and sustained release of micro-nutrients and fertilizers etc. Nanobiotechnology is expected to offer critical biological aspects of various crops; which inevitably will enhance the corresponding nutritional values. Further, these ideas will also help in meeting the food security and of environmental challenges. However, before implementation, these products need to be thoroughly evaluated for any toxicity concerns. Unfortunately, research outcomes of this field are mostly restricted to the lab and the concerned rules and regulations are also not well documented. To add to this, due to high initial production investments, industry experts are reluctant to invest significantly in this field. Thus, concentrated efforts from all directions are required to meet these global challenges. The present review will be covering all these aspects related to agriculture nanotechnology by citing specific examples from the existing recent literature reports and will also comment on the future prospects of this area.