Nanofertilizers - Emerging smart fertilizers for modern and sustainable agriculture

Last few decades have witnessed enormous explosion of human population which is putting strain on utilization of natural resources. Particularly, agriculture is under pressure to ensure food security for this expanding population. To combat this demand chemical fertilizers are being used to enhance the crop yield but it poses serious impact on ecosystem. It is therefore time to replace traditional farming practices with wise ones that will increase food yield and nutritional value without endangering our ecosystem. In this regard, utilizing cutting-edge, novel technologies-such as nanotechnology-is a viable approach to attaining sustainability. One of the most promising synthetic materials for attaining sustained agricultural output through intelligent agrochemical release is nanofertilizers (NFs). Nano tools possess certain properties such as sitespecific, smart delivery, release NFs in a controlled manner (hence called as 'smart fertilizers'), which minimize the burden of quantity and cost of chemical fertilizers on cultivators. NFs boost the efficiency to use plant nutrients, reduce soil toxicity, lower the overuse of chemical fertilizers. Because of small size (<100 nm), and high surface area, NFs gives the plant system more room to accommodate various metabolic processes and have greater penetration efficiency in plants and soil. With this backdrop, the present article focuses on diverse types of fertilizers, mechanisms of action and benefits of NFs. Further, the impact of particle size on NFs, their production cost, role of biocatalysis in NFs development and plant viral disease management have also been highlighted.