Nanosensor Technology for Smart Intelligent Agriculture

Abstract

Agriculture requires technical solutions for increasing production while lessening environmental impact by reducing the application of agrochemicals and increasing the use of environmentally friendly management practices. Both biotic and abiotic stresses lead to a massive loss in crop yield, leading to a decrease in agricultural production worldwide. The loss of agricultural products can be minimized by adopting modern technology such as smartphones with nanosensors to detect crop stress at an early stage. Smart and precision agriculture are emerging areas where nanosensors and electronic devices can play an important role in improving crop productivity by monitoring crop health status in real-time. Various types of nanosensors have been reported for the detection and monitoring of plant signal molecules and metabolic contents related to biotic and abiotic stresses. Nanobiosensors are customized using various properties of nanomaterials to combat various challenges of contemporary techniques. Nanobiosensors have unprecedented levels of performance for sensing the ultra-trace amount of various analytes for in vivo measurement. These nanosensors communicate with and actuate electronic devices for agricultural automation. Thus, both biotic and abiotic plant stresses and nutritional deficiency are monitored in real-time to report crop health status for precise and efficient use of resources. This chapter discusses the recent advances in nanosensors technology and their applications for smart intelligent agriculture.