Nanofertilizer Possibilities for Healthy Soil, Water, and Food in Future: An Overview

Abstract

Conventional fertilizers and pesticides are not sustainable for multiple reasons, including high delivery and usage inefficiency, considerable energy, and water inputs with adverse impact on the agroecosystem. Achieving and maintaining optimal food security is a global task that initiates agricultural approaches to be revolutionized effectively on time, as adversities in climate change, population growth, and loss of arable land may increase. Recent approaches based on nanotechnology may improve in vivo nutrient delivery to ensure the distribution of nutrients precisely, as nanoengineered particles may improve crop growth and productivity. The underlying mechanistic processes are yet to be unlayered because in coming years, the major task may be to develop novel and efficient nutrient uses in agriculture with nutrient use efficiency (NUE) to acquire optimal crop yield with ecological biodiversity, sustainable agricultural production, and agricultural socio-economy. This study highlights the potential of nanofertilizers in agricultural crops for improved plant performance productivity in case subjected to abiotic stress conditions.

Nanosilicon: An approach for abiotic stress mitigation and sustainable agriculture

“…The farmers regularly use pesticides and synthetic fertilizers to enhance crop production, which impose threat to the agricultural ecosystem. However, this approach may assist plant performance/fitness for crop improvement, fruit and grain quality (Verma et al, 2022a;Wang et al, 2022) during adverse environmental conditions. It is an emerging interdisciplinary area potentially promoting plant growth and stress tolerance.…”

“…The recent investigations indicated that the fertilization of soil with nSi stimulates photosynthetic CO 2 assimilation rate, biochemical and molecular responses in plants that resist unfavorable environmental conditions (Verma et al, 2022a). Abiotic stresses induce the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), i.e., singlet oxygen, superoxide, hydrogen peroxide, and hydroxyl radicals in cells (Das and Roychoudhury, 2014;Kim et al, 2017).…”

Influence of nanosilicon on drought tolerance in plants: An overview

“…Various reports demonstrated the efficiency of ENPs in agriculture ( Manjunatha et al., 2016 ; Adisa et al., 2019 ; Verma et al., 2022a ; Verma et al., 2022b ). However, the majority of earlier investigations on the interactions between plants and ENPs concentrated on the possible toxicity of nanoparticles to higher plants.…”

“…The minimal oxidative damage indices that followed rehydrating plants with nSi indicated its major role in scavenging excessive ROS and activating antioxidant defense mechanisms in plants during drought. The excess level of ROS could be due to decreased CAT activity during unfavorable environmental variables ( Chahardoli et al., 2020 ; Verma et al., 2022a ; Verma et al., 2022b ). The enhanced CAT activity in the plants associated with nSi reveals an enhancement in the ROS-scavenging capacity of stressed plants, which is accompanied by plant protection/production from oxidative damage.…”

“…Insufficient water availability is a big problem that causes substantial global losses in plant performance and productivity both quantitatively and qualitatively. The plants are the main producers of bio-ecosystems, and they often have to respond to different agroclimatic conditions such as water deficits, submergence/soil flooding, heavy metal toxicity, pesticides/herbicides, salt stress, high and low light intensities, pests/insects, and pathogens ( Ghorbanpour et al., 2020 ; Verma et al., 2022a ; Verma et al., 2022b ). It is well documented that water deficits may impair photosynthetic and metabolic processes associated with the regulation of proper plant growth and development ( Verma et al., 2021 ).…”