This document summarizes a seminar presentation on the application of nanotechnology in agriculture. The seminar outline includes an introduction to nanotechnology, nanoparticles, applications of nanotechnology, and nanotechnology in agriculture and allied sciences. Some specific applications discussed are nano-fertilizers, nano-pesticides, precision farming using nano-sensors, crop improvement using nanoparticles for gene delivery, and environmental remediation using nanoparticles to detect and remove contaminants. Both the positive impacts like improved nutrient use efficiency and targeted delivery of agrochemicals, as well as potential negative impacts like toxicity, are mentioned.

3. Ph.D. SEMINAR
ON
Application of nanotechnology in Agriculture
Presented By:
AMIT BISHNOI
DEPARTMENT OF AGRONOMY
RAJASTHAN COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE
MAHARANA PRATAP UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE AND TECHNOLOGY, UDAIPUR -
313001(RAJ.)

4. Seminar Outline
 Introduction
 Background of Nanotechnology
 Nanoparticles
 Applications of nanotechnology
 Nanotechnology in Agriculture and allied sciences
 Environmental remediation
 Nanopesticides
 Conclusion
4

5. Introduction
Agriculture is the backbone of most developing countries, with more than 60% of the population
reliant on it for their livelihood.
Agricultural scientists are facing a wide spectrum of challenges such as stagnation in crop yields,
low nutrient use efficiency, declining soil organic matter, multi-nutrient deficiencies, climate
change, shrinking arable land and water availability and shortage of labour besides exodus of
people from farming.
we need to attain a sustainable growth in agriculture at the rate of 4% to meet the food security
challenges.
Nanotechnology is emerging as the sixth revolutionary technology in the current era after the
Industrial Revolution of Mid 1700s, Nuclear Energy Revolution of the 1940s, The Green
Revolution of 1960s, Information Technology Revolution of 1980s and Biotechnology
Revolution of the 1990s.
The recent statistics suggest that about 90% of the nano-based patents and products have come
from just seven countries, namely, China, Germany, France, Japan, Switzerland, South Korea and
USA

6. 6
Nanotechnology ?...
“Nanotechnology is the art and science of
manipulating matter at nanoscale”
The design, characterization, production and
application of structure, device and system by
controlling shape and size at nanoscale
British standard institution, 2005

7. ‘Nano’- Greek word means ‘Dwarf’
 1 nm = one billionth (10ˉ⁹) of metre
 Size range between 0.1 and 100 nm
7

8. 8

9. “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom”
- at American Physical Society meeting at the California
Institute of Technology on Dec-29, 1959.
“Adaptability to manipulate, control, assemble, produce
and manufacture things at atomic precision”
9
Father of nanotechnology
Nobel Laureate-1965
Richard Feynman, Physicist

10. Norio Taniguchi, Professor -
coined the term “Nanotechnology” (1974)
“Nano-technology’’ - Processing, separation, consolidation and
deformation of materials by one atom or by one molecule.
10

11. ~ 2000
Years Ago
Sulfide nanocrystals used by Greeks and Romans to dye hairs
~ 1000 Years
Ago
Gold nanoparticles of different sizes used to produce different colors in
stained glass windows
1959 “There is plenty of room at the bottom” by R. Feynman
1974 Taniguchi uses the term nanotechnology for the first time
1981 IBM develops Scanning Tunneling Microscope
1985 “Buckyball” - Scientists at Rice University and University of Sussex
discover C60
1986 • “Engines of Creation” - First book on nanotechnology by K. Eric
Drexler.
• Atomic Force Microscope invented by Binnig, Quate and Gerbe
1989 IBM logo made with individual atoms
1991 Carbon nanotube discovered by S. Iijima
1999 “Nanomedicine” – 1st nanomedicine book by R. Freitas
2000 “National Nanotechnology Initiative” launched
(British Standards Institution, 2005)
Time Line of Nanotechnology
11

12. 12

13. Arranged or assembled into ordered layers, or mine layers
Revolutionize agriculture including fertilizer, herbicides
,insecticides management as well as develop new high yielding
or resistant verities in the near future
Possess distinct physical, biological and chemical properties
associated with their atomic strength
Bhattacharyya et al., 2010
13
Nanoparticles

14. 10nm 50nm
Property
Below about 100 nm the rules
that govern the behaviour of the
elements of our known world
start to give way to the rules of
quantum mechanics, and
everything changes
Quantum effects
14
Properties of nanoparticles

15.  Carbon in the form of graphite (i.e. pencil lead) is
soft, at the nano-scale, can be stronger than steel
and is six times lighter
 Nano-scale copper is a highly elastic
metal at room temperature, stretching
to 50 times its original length without breaking
 Shiny orange yellow Gold changes its colour to
brownish black on reducing the size
15
Things behave differently in nano-world

16. Scanning Tunneling Microscope or Scanning probe
Microscope
Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer in 1981 and get Noble Prize in Physics in 1986
Development of Nanotechnology

17. (Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering, 2004)
METHODS OF NANOPARTICLE PRODUCTION
17

18. (Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering, 2004)
TOP DOWN APPROACH
18

19. (Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering, 2004)19
BOTTOM UPAPPORAOCH

20. Dendrimers
Quantumdots
Nanosensors
FullerenesCarbon Nanotubes
Nano Chips
C60 Cadmium selinade
Tools of Nanotechnology

21. Applications
Of
Nanotechnology

23.  Medicine
 Cancer treatment
 Bone treatment
 Drug delivery
 Appetite control
 Drug development
 Medical tools
 Diagnostic tests
 Imaging
 Information Technology
 Smaller, faster, more
energy efficient and
powerful computing and
other IT-based systems
 Energy
 More efficient and cost
effective technologies for
enenergy production
 Solar cells
 Fuel cells
 Batteries
Consumer Goods
Foods and beverages
 Advanced packaging
materials, sensors, and
lab-on-chips for food
quality testing
Appliances and textiles
 Stain proof, water
proof and wrinkle free
textiles
Household and cosmetics
 scratch free products,
paints, and better
cosmetics

24. Nanomaterials and Agriculture
 There has been significant interest in using nanotechnology in
agriculture
The goals fall into several categories
 Increase production rates and yield
 Increase efficiency of resource utilization
 Minimize waste production
 Nano-based treatment of agricultural waste
 Nanosensors
 Specific applications include:
Nano-fertilizers, Nano-pesticides

25. Application of nanotechnology in
agriculture and allied sciences
 Food technology
 Crop improvement
 Seed technology
 Precision farming
 Nano-fertilizer for balance
crop nutrition
 Plant disease diaganose
 Weed management
 Water management
 Biosensors (Electronic
nose)
 Agricultural engineering
issue
 Animal science
 Fishery and aquaculture
 Pest management
25

26. Food science and technology
• Nanotechnology for enhancing food security in India
Sastry et al., 2011
• Hybrid polymer : Smart packaging with Nano silicon
embedded durethan polymer to enhance the shelf life of the
food materials
Bayer polymers
26

27. Precision farming
Smart Field System
 Bio-Nanotechnology has designed sensors which give
increased sensitivity and earlier response to environmental
changes and linked into GPS
 These monitor soil conditions and crop growth over vast areas
 Such sensors have already been employed in US and Australia
27

28. Plant pathology
 100% growth inhibition was seen in the Pythium ultimum,
Magnaporthe grisea, Colletotrichum gloeosporioides, Botrytis
cinere and, Rhyzoctonia solani, showed at 10 ppm of the
nanosized silica-silver
Park et al., 2006
 QDs have emerged as pivotal tool for detection of a particular
biological marker with extreme accuracy
Madhuri et al., 2010
28

29. Crop improvement
• Gene therapy for plants : use of 3-nm mesoporous silica
nanoparticle (MSN) for smuggling foreign DNA into cells.
Peterson et al.,2014
• Shown the feasibility of DNA sequencing using a fluidic
nanochannel functionalized with a graphene nanoribbon
Kyu min et al., 2013
Seed technology
• Use of carbon Nanotubes increases the germination
through better penetration of the moisture
Khodokovskaya et al.,2010
29

30. Nanotechnology in Seed Science
Detecting pollen load that will cause contamination to ensure genetic purity
Use of nano-sensore specific to contaminating pollen can help alert the possible
contamination
Detection of seed borne pathogens
Nano-coating of seeds to improve germination
Natarajan and Sivasubramnian, 2007

31. Gene transformation in plants is normally carried out by Agrobacterium species, application of
some chemicals and physical techniques (electroporation, microprojectile, etc.). Now a days with
better efficacy and reproducibility, novel technologies for the direct gene transfer like liposome,
positively charged liposome (lipofectin) and nanoparticle based delivery systems are used for
genetic transformation of plants. In this review, we have enlightened the novel nanotechnologies
like liposome, Carbon nano-tube and nanoparticles with their current status and future prospects
in transgenic plant development.
Mehrnaz et al., 2012
Fig. 1. Nanotechnology based gene carrier studied in plant biotechnology

32. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were found to penetrate tomato seeds and affect their germination and
growth rates. The germination was found to be dramatically higher for seeds that germinated on
medium containing CNTs (10−40 μg/mL) compared to control. Analytical methods indicated that
the CNTs are able to penetrate the thick seed coat and support water uptake inside seeds, a
process which can affect seed germination and growth of tomato seedlings.
USA Khodakovskaya 2009
Fig.2. Effect of carbon nanotubes seed germination in plant growth

33. Crop nutrition Management
Slow release of nano-fertilizer
On situ diagnosis of nutrient status
Diagnosis of Nutrient disorder in plants

34. Fig.3. Nitrogen use efficiency (%) of conventional and nano-fertilizer
TNAU, Coimbtore Subramanian and Tarafdar, 2011

35. Fig.4. A) Higher root growth of peanut plant after nanoscale ZnO treatment (1000 ppm). The
plants were uprooted after 110 days. B) Pot culture experiment showing higher plant growth after
nanoscale ZnO treatment (1000 ppm), after 110 days.
Tirupati Parasad et al., 2012

36. Tirupati Parasad et al., 2012
Fig. 5. Photograph showing the effect of foliar application of lower dosage of nanoscale ZnO
on the pod yield. A and B) nanoscale ZnO @ 2 g/ 15 L and C) control

37. Nano-fertilizer technology
 Use of nanoscale nutrients to suppress crop disease.
 Amendment protocols necessary to maximize plant health often vary with the level of
infection or absence of the pathogen.
 Micronutrients are critical in the
defense against crop disease, with
tissue infection inducing a cascade
of reactions commonly resulting in
the production of inhibitory
secondary metabolites.
Foliar application of nano Phosphorous as fertilizer (640 mg ha-1) and soil application of
phosphorous fertilizer (80 kg ha-1 ) yielded equally in clusterbean and pearl millet under arid
environment.
Tarafdar et al., 2012

38.  These metabolites are often generated by enzymes that
require activation by micronutrient cofactors.
 The use of nanoparticle-based micronutrient
formulations may offer(Singh, 2012)
a highly effective novel platform for crop
disease suppression
yield enhancement through more targeted
strategic nutrition-based promotion of host
resistance.

39.  Nano particles may enter plant leaves through stomata
and the cuticle structures.
 NP metals/metal oxides are more effectively translocated
than corresponding bulk elements and that this greater
transportability exists in both xylem and phloem.
 Sufficient micronutrient content
in key tissues will enhance plant
defense in the presence of
pathogens but a number of factors
may limit this supply.

40. Table 1. Response of peanut to application of nanoscale zinc oxide
Tirupati Parasad et al., 2012

41. Nano-herbicide for effective weed control
Encapsulated herbicide in a MnO2 core shell
Smart delivery mechanism
TNAU, Coimbatore Chinnamuthu and Kokiladevi, 2007

42.  Herbicides inside nano particles are developed
that can be timed-release or have release linked
to an environmental trigger .
 Less herbicide is required to achieve the
reduction weed reduction effects .
 If the active ingredient is combined with a
smart delivery system, herbicide will be applied
only when necessary according to the conditions
present in the field. (Gruère et al., 2011)

43. Fig. 6. Smart delivery of nanoencapsulated herbicide in the crop-weed environment
TNAU, Coimbatore Chinnamuthu and Kokiladevi, 2007

44. Nano-pesticide
Developing pesticides encapsulated in nanoparticles.
(OECD and Allianz, 2008)
These pesticides may be time released or released upon the occurrence of
an environmental trigger (temperature, humidity, light).

45. Zahir et al., 201245
Efficacy of plant-mediated synthesized silver nanoparticles against
Sitophilus oryzae

46. Silver nano particle synthesis by Bt
 Silver nano particle were synthesised by the spore complex of
B. thuriengiensis
 These nanostructures are highly toxic to multi drug resistant
human pathogenic bacteria
46
Jain et al., 2010

47.  Antifungal activity of NP Cu2O on Phytothphora
infestans with tomato.
 The foliar application resulted in significantly greater
protection (73.5 %) from the pathogen, compared to the
bulk amendment (57.8 %).(Servin et al., 2015)

48. Soil remediation
• Nanotech-based soil binder called SoilSet employed to avoid
soil erosion
Sequoia Pacific Research of Utah (USA)
Removal of heavy metals
• Ligand based nanocoating can be utilized for effective removal
of heavy metals as these have high absorption tendency
Water treatments
• magnetite (iron oxide) nanocrystals to capture and remove
arsenic from contaminated water.
Researchers at Rice University
48

49. Animal science
 Nano micelles, liposomes, nano-emulsions complexes
improves the utilization efficiency of nutrients in the fodder
Fishery and aquaculture
 NanoCheck- 40 nm lanthanum-based compound absorbs
phosphates from the water and prevents algae Growth.
 Fast growing fish: Younger carp exhibited 30% faster growth
rate when fed with iron nanoparticles
Russian Academy of Sciences
Agricultural Engineering Issues
 Nano coating of agricultural tools to increase their resistance
against wear and corrosion
49

50. Application in sericulture
 25 ppm of Silver nanoparticles can be used as growth
stimulant to increase the silk yield
Prabhu et al., 2011
 Production of Electrospun silk fibroin based fibers using
CNT
Seth et al., 2007
50

51. Positive effects of
Nano materials in
crop protection

52.  Nano – encapsulated agrochemicals designed in such a
way that they possess all indispensable properties such
as
effective concentration with high solubility,
stability and effectiveness,
time controlled release in response to certain
stimuli
enhanced targeted activity
less Eco toxicity with harmless
effortless mode of delivery thus avoiding repetitive
application.

53.  Nano particles on biological systems and the
environment such as toxicity generated by free radicals
leading to lipid peroxidation and DNA damage.
 High concentration of nanosilica silver produced some
chemical injuries on the tested plants (cucumber leaves
and pansy flowers).
Negative effects of nano materials

54. Environmental remediation
Detecting contaminants in food or environmental media by using nano-sensor
Amine et al., 2006
Detection of multiple residues of organophosphorus pesticides has been accomplished
using a Nanomagnetic particle in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) test
(Hu et al., 2010)
Removal of metal ion and heavy metals from aqueous solutions by using nano-magnets

55. Agro chemicals
• Agricultural chemical companies such as Monsanto, Syngenta
and BASF; have ventured in developing nanoparticle pesticides
• The world's leading chemical company already sells a number
of pesticide emulsions containing nanoparticles
• The positive side of nanoparticle pesticides is that far less
need to be applied and reducing cost and environmental
damage.
55

56. • World’s largest agrochemical company syngenta have number of
chemicals with emulsions that contain nanoparticles.
To date, none of these agrochemicals are currently labeled as containing
nano particles.
Syngenta have obtained a patent for ‘GUTBUSTER’ microcapsule will break
open in alkaline environments, including the stomach of certain insects
(ETC Group, 2004).
Syngenta’s US Patent No. 6,544,540
56

58. e-Nose
 Operates like human nose
 Identify different types of odors and their concentrations
 Use of ZnO nanoparticles
58

59. • Quantum dots
 Marking insects
 Detecting and tracking insects
59
Nanotechnology In Migrational Studies

60. Potential Risks of Nanotechnology
 Health issues
 Nanoparticles could be inhaled, swallowed, absorbed through skin, Carbon
Nanotubes could cause infection of lungs
 They trigger inflammation and weaken the immune system. And interfere with
regulatory mechanisms of enzymes and proteins
 Environmental issues
 Nanoparticles could accumulate in soil, water and plants
Other issues
 Loss of jobs (in manufacturing, farming, etc)
 Atomic weapons could be more accessible and destructive
 New risk assessment methods are needed
 National and international agencies are beginning to study the risk
 Results will lead to new regulations
60

61. Future Of Nanotechnology

62. National Science and Technology Council (USA) claims
that:
“Nanotechnology is an enabling technology that will
change the nature of almost every human-made object
in the next century.”
Future of Nanotechnology
This statement has obvious meaning that
Nanotechnology is capable of changing the way
almost everything is designed and made: from
computers to clothing; from sports equipments to
space ships and satellites; from cars to cancer
therapies; from bridges to paint; and even objects
and devices not yet imagined.

63.  From the ongoing presentation, it can be concluded
that the Nanotechnology is capable of being used in
agricultural products that protect plants and monitor
plant growth and detect diseases
 Scientists are still seeking new applications of
nanotechnology in agriculture and the food industry
 The agricultural sector and the food industry will
indeed see tremendous changes for the better in the
coming years
63
Conclusion

64. 64
Nano