Nano-enabled Agriculture Can Sustain “Farm to Fork” Chain

Abstract

The global population will augment to 9.7 billion by 2050, so the agricultural produce needs to boost by 60%. The most significant “grand challenges” we face are achieving and sustaining global food security. Further confounding this effort is the fact that this growth in food production will have to occur in the face of a changing climate, urbanization, decreasing acreage of arable land, sustainable use of natural resources, environmental issues like runoff and accumulation of pesticides and fertilizers. One of the chief shortcomings of contemporary agricultural practices with average loss of 10–75% and a prime target for improvement is elevated inefficiency of agrochemical delivery and utilization. To address these problems, nanotechnology plays an essential role to enhance production yield besides, mitigate negative environmental issues. Nanotechnologies promote food security by enhanced delivery and utilization of nano-agrochemicals and ensure food safety through nanosensors. It involves an interdisciplinary approach to deliver nutrients to agricultural crops against various deficiencies, genetic material via nanoparticle-mediated chloroplast transgene delivery, and less overall environmental impact. Here we describe how nanotechnology plays a vital role to boost the agribusiness and food industry for the sustainable development.