Recent advances in nanoemulsion for sustainable development of farm-to-fork systems

Abstract

The increase in demand for food and agricultural products as a result of upsurge in the global population growth is a call for concern. Absolute reliance on the current traditional agricultural practices may result in global food crises if not properly managed. The use of conventional agricultural practice has been shown to suffer low-crop nutrient efficiency, negative impacts on the environment, high loss of water bodies, loss of agricultural products to microorganisms on the field, and storage among other challenges. The adoption of nanotechnology in agriculture tends to revolutionalize the agricultural sector, to achieve sustainable farming, improving food security, quality and safety, ease of product handling and processing, packaging, storage, monitoring, and consumption. This has positioned nano-biotech-based agricultural practice as an emerging, promising, and best alternative technique that has the potential to fully revolutionize the global agricultural systems thereby serving as a panacea to the imminent global food challenges due to climate change. This review focused on the application of nanoemulsion; a liquid-based nanosized colloidal system that offers numerous benefits in crop production and livestock management, by enhancing and improving both plant and animal productivity in agriculture. Emphasis is given on its importance to food production; medicine as related to livestock production, and storage of food and food products, thereby providing the needed solution to the active global increase in demand for food and food products. The work also presents the probable toxicity and environmental effects of nano-sized material, its shortcoming, and the prospects of nanoemulsion.