The potential of nanomaterials in agriculture: challenges and opportunities

Abstract

Climate change and society evolution ask for an optimization of agriculture practices and/or new trends to attain a sustainable agriculture. The materials science can provide the appropriate tools to agricultural activities and phenomena from germination, growth up to harvest and post-harvest of agricultural products. Here, relevant recent results focused on the sustainability features reports provided by the usage of nanomaterials are reviewed and discussed to point out the challenges and opportunities of nanoscience in the novel agriculture era. Nanomaterials offer a platform to fertilizer delivering, mediate pollution in water and air and control the pathogenic microorganisms which occur in agriculture processes. Those viable nanomaterials syntheses together with standardized evaluation are important aspects in generating new categories of technicians and scientists in this emerging interdisciplinary kind of agriculture. The correct legislation can be obtained if there are worldwide protocols to work with, that is, protocols which included the synthesis and characterization of nanomaterials that are reproducible worldwide and developed in-situ to obtain real results.