Emergence of nanoscale fertilizers in agriculture: A review

Abstract

There is an immense pressure on the agriculture sector to fulfil the increasing demands of the consistently growing global population. Chemical fertilizers are thought to be requisite for improving crop productivity and are indiscriminately applied through different methods. However, excessive use of fertilizers causes irreversible damage to soils and waters leading to the significant environmental hazards besides depletion in the agricultural productivity levels. Recent studies have shown that usage of nanoscale materials as crop nutrients (Nano fertilizers) was giving encouraging results in terms of growth, productivity and nutrient bio-fortification. Application of nanoscale fertilizers will reduce the cost of fertilizers per crop and also considerably minimizes losses and thereby the pollution hazard. In this review, we summarized the application of different nanoscale fertilizers on an array of crops and their effects on different parameters like, germination, growth, productivity, quality, nutrient uptake, nutrient bio-fortification and cost economics.