Nanotechnology for precision and sustainable agriculture: recent advances, challenges and future implications

Sustainable agriculture is extremely critical for sustenance of all the life forms owing to the exceedingly demand of food products for an ever-increasing population across the globe. Essentially, sustainable agriculture involves holistic management of livestock, crops and fisheries, so as to make the farming process self-sustaining for a longer period. Food and agriculture sector contributes heavily in meeting the human demands and thus sustainable agricultural practices would result in positive and long-lasting consequences. Sustainable growth in the field of agriculture can be achievable by the intervention of advanced technologies such as nanotechnology. Conventional farming methods failed to fully utilize the available resources. To circumvent these limitations, nanotechnology can be effectively used to enhance the crop quality and productivity. Applications of nanotechnology in the field of agriculture will lead to improved plant growth, stabilization of soil and microbes, targeted usage of chemicals and most importantly nanotechnology contributes profoundly for waste management. The enhanced activity displayed by the nanoparticles is essentially because of their extremely small size resulting in larger surface area. Nanoparticles are used as seed priming agents resulting in enhanced seed germination rate, consequently favouring for overall growth of the plant. Nanocapsulated fertilizers and pesticides brought a revolutionary change encouraging for betterment of crop and animal health without affecting the environment. Nanotechnology bears tremendous potential to effectively integrate manifold activities of agriculture practices with sustainable productivity. Although the potential benefits of nanotechnology are countless, the environmental safety concerns needs to be cautiously examined. Nanotechnology improves their performance and adequacy by increasing viability, security and, eventually, lowering social insurance costs. In this review, we highlight the nanotechnological interventions aiming towards sustainability in agricultural and food processing sectors primarily by deploying modified nanoparticles and also emphasized several challenges and their impact on the environment. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.