Nano-fertilizers: A Novel Way for Enhancing Nutrient Use Efficiency and Crop Productivity

Nano fertilizers are the important tools in agriculture to improve crop growth, yield and quality parameters with increase nutrient use efficiency, reduce wastage of fertilizers and cost of cultivation. Nano-fertilizers are very effective for precise nutrient management in precision agriculture with matching the crop growth stage for nutrient and may provide nutrient throughout the crop growth period. Nano-fertilizers increase crop growth up to optimum concentrations further increase in concentration may inhibit the crop growth due to the toxicity of nutrient. Nano-fertilizers provide more surface area for different metabolic reactions in the plant which increase rate of photosynthesis and produce more dry matter and yield of the crop. It is also prevent plant from different biotic and abiotic stress. Because of the limitation in arable lands and water resources, the development of agriculture sector is only possible by increasing of resources use efficiency with the minimum damage to production bed through effective use of modern technologies. Among these, nanotechnology has the potential to revolutionize the agricultural systems, biomedicine, environmental engineering, safety and security, water resources, energy conversion, and numerous other areas. Nanostructured formulation through mechanisms such as targeted delivery or slow/controlled release mechanisms and conditional release, could release their active ingredients in responding to environmental triggers and biological demands more precisely. Studies show that the use of nano-fertilizers causes an increase in nutrients use efficiency, reduces soil toxicity, minimizes the potential negative effects associated with over dosage and reduces the frequency of the application. Hence, nanotechnology has a high potential for achieving sustainable agriculture, especially in developing countries.