Nanotechnology based precision agriculture for alleviating biotic and abiotic stress in plants

Abstract

A rapid growth in world population is putting a pressure on agricultural products due to their worldwide demand. Contrastively, agricultural activities developed during green revolution are becoming unsustainable in current climatic change and surging population. Therefore, innovative techniques are the need of time to combat the rising world food demand. Nanotechnology, that is offering more sustainable and resilient agricultural system with improvement in food security, is an important driver to bring the agri-tech revolution. Here, we explored the opportunities of nanotechnology application to combat biological and environmental stress in plants. We present the application of various kinds of nanosensors for different environmental stresses and emphasized on the need to design and propose new nanotechnologies. This review also highlights the challenges for safely moving from labs to field studies and the strategies on how these challenges can be surmounted. Different strategies that may be helpful in bringing the agricultural sustainability includes prioritizing the agricultural research and development through full life cycle field studies on nanosensors application, interconnecting the different organizations to take actions regarding regularization of nanosensors application in agriculture, collaboration with policy makers and stakeholders for sustainable execution.

Keywords

• Nanosensors
• Precision agriculture
• Environmental stress
• Biological stress