Abstract
The Green New Deal requires a profound transformation of the agricultural sector, which will have to become more sustainable and ensure universal access to healthy food. Thus, it will be essential to introduce radical technological innovations. Nanotechnologies have the potential to produce a significant boost to the improvement of the food system. Within this context, in the next years, a strong challenge will need to be faced regarding developing new and more efficient uses of nutrients in agriculture, being the nutrient use efficiency (NUE) paramount in sustaining high crop productivity without depleting biodiversity, and altering both the natural and agricultural systems. Nutrients leaching causes environmental pollution and water eutrophication, while nutrient excess favors pest and weed widespread. Therefore, it will be mandatory to improve plant nutrition efficiency without affecting agricultural productivity and economic sustainability. A promising alternative consists of the introduction of the so-called nanomaterial enhanced fertilizers and plant growth stimulators. Such innovation includes nanotechnological solutions that can improve nutrient delivery for a more finely tuned, accurate, and saving-resources distribution of nutrients. This review provides a critical view of the latest advances in nanofertilizer research, mainly referring to nano-hydroxyapatite, silica nanoparticles, and chitosan-derived nanostructures.
Highlights
The Green New Deal requires a profound transformation of the agricultural sector, which will have to become more sustainable and ensure universal access to healthy food
In connection with this, currently are ongoing studies based on the hypothesis that the release of P from HAP is slower than conventional fertilizers, but at the same time, that the element is mobilized faster than the forms immobilized in the soil
The results showed that in the experimental conditions, the P uptake and the percentage of P in the plant that was derived from the fertilizer followed the order: triple superphosphate (TSP) > nHAP > bulk HAP (Table 1)
Summary
“The food system is a major driver of climate change, changes in land use, depletion of freshwater resources, and pollution of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems through excessive nitrogen and phosphorus inputs.” This dramatic statement is contained in a paper published in Nature in 2018 [1]. “The food system is a major driver of climate change, changes in land use, depletion of freshwater resources, and pollution of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems through excessive nitrogen and phosphorus inputs.” This dramatic statement is contained in a paper published in Nature in 2018 [1]. Nutrient use efficiency (NUE) is a valuable parameter in the evaluation of crop production systems It can be defined as the maximum crop dry matter produced per unit of that particular nutrient taken up by plants. These goals are certainly ambitious, especially considering that this will have to take place in a scenario where there is the pressing need to increase food production to cope with the expected demographic increase This apparent paradox can only be solved through (i) a significant improvement in the efficiency of production processes and (ii) the implementation of technological innovations. At last was introduced the claim “Agriculture 4.0” to indicate those emergent technologies, such as artificial intelligence, big data, the Internet of Things, gene editing, and drones, to be implemented as solutions to challenges associated with food production maintaining the profitability of agriculture and environmental protection [19]
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