Next-Generation Intelligent Nanopesticides: Challenges and Opportunities Toward Achieving Sustainable Agriculture

Abstract:

Nanotechnology presents promise to revolutionize modern agriculture, leading the way for the advancement of the 3^rd Agricultural Revolution. The most recent nano-enabled avenue in agriculture, i.e., nanopesticide, is believed to be a game changer in integrated pest management (IPM) for controlling pests, weeds, and pathogens toward achieving sustainable agriculture. Compared to conventional pesticides (e.g., atrazine and glyphosate), the next-generation intelligent nanopesticides (e.g., metal-based nanomaterials and nanocarrier-encapsulated pesticides) feature controlled, targeted, and sustained release of the active ingredients for IPM based on crop needs and other biotic and abiotic stimuli (e.g., weed intrusion, heat, drought, and frost). Field applications of these novel nanopesticides can expedite achieving sustainable agriculture in a multifaceted fashion including: higher efficiency for IPM, lower application dosage and treatment frequency, and associated benefits like lower costs and less negative impacts to the environment. This presentation aims to critically identify strategies for harnessing and tailoring physicochemical and/or biological attributes of nanopesticides for effective IPM, particularly under extreme conditions (e.g., extreme heat, flooding, and high salinity environment exacerbated by climate change and seawater intrusion), and the benefits of doing so. Example benefits of nanopesticides include minimized premature loss of active ingredients, enhanced adhesion to plant foliage, improved efficiency for IPM, and alleviated negative impacts for nontarget organisms (e.g., soil microbiota). Uptake, translocation, and biotransformation of nanopesticides in plants, and their negative impacts and potential risks (e.g., toxicity, bioaccumulation, and trophic transfer in food chains) to human health as well as to aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems will be discussed. Opportunities and future research priorities will be targeted for maximizing the benefits of nanopesticides in achieving sustainable agriculture and global food security through the integration of nanotechnology and plant biotechnology, while minimizing the negative impacts and potential risks of these novel agronanochemicals to human and environmental health.