Nanotechnology for Soil Health: Applications, Improvements, and Environmental Benefits

Abstract

Agriculture provides sustenance and raw materials to the building, energy, fabric, and pharmacological industries. Agrochemical overuse, soil degradation, urbanization, unsustainable resource use, biodiversity loss, air pollution, and climate change are just a few of the worrisome problems facing agriculture today that demand prompt attention. These problems are too complex, labor-intensive, time-consuming, inefficient, demand a lot of crop nutrients, and are not suited for conventional agricultural methods to handle. Furthermore, the excessive use of agrochemicals poses a serious threat to ecological integrity. As a result, researchers, farmers, and decision-makers are never done looking for innovative ways to address pressing issues. Growing evidence points to nanotechnology as the new sustainable agricultural savior. Nanosensors have been used in agri-fields not only for precision farming but also for the recognition of chemically hazardous analytes and crop diseases. Additionally, there are many amazing uses of nanotools in agriculture, including sensing, photocatalysis, and the delivery of agrochemicals. This chapter covers in detail the many amazing ways that nanotechnology has been used to overcome the shortcomings of traditional agronomic approaches as well as the potential applications that nanotechnology may have in the future.