School of Environment, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
Department of Chemical Engineering, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Nat Nanotechnol. 2019 Jun;14(6):532-540. doi: 10.1038/s41565-019-0439-5. Epub 2019 Jun 5.
Various nano-enabled strategies are proposed to improve crop production and meet the growing global demands for food, feed and fuel while practising sustainable agriculture. After providing a brief overview of the challenges faced in the sector of crop nutrition and protection, this Review presents the possible applications of nanotechnology in this area. We also consider performance data from patents and unpublished sources so as to define the scope of what can be realistically achieved. In addition to being an industry with a narrow profit margin, agricultural businesses have inherent constraints that must be carefully considered and that include existing (or future) regulations, as well as public perception and acceptance. Directions are also identified to guide future research and establish objectives that promote the responsible and sustainable development of nanotechnology in the agri-business sector.
各种利用纳米技术的策略被提出来以提高作物产量，满足全球对粮食、饲料和燃料不断增长的需求，同时实现可持续农业。本文简要概述了作物营养和保护领域面临的挑战，介绍了纳米技术在该领域的潜在应用。我们还考虑了专利和非公开来源的性能数据，以确定实际可实现的范围。除了利润率较低的行业，农业企业还存在固有的限制因素，这些因素必须仔细考虑，包括现有的（或未来的）法规，以及公众的认知和接受程度。本文还确定了指导未来研究的方向，并制定了目标，以促进农业企业中纳米技术的负责任和可持续发展。
