Sustainable Nanotechnology

18 Eco‐friendly Nanotechnology in Agriculture: Opportunities, Toxicological Implications, and Occupational Risks

Layla Muraisi¹, Dewi Melani Hariyadi², Umi Athiyah², and Yashwant Pathak^1,3

¹ Taneja College of Pharmacy, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA

² Faculty of Pharmacy, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia

³ Faculty of Pharmacy, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia

18.1 Introduction

According to the National Nanotechnology Initiative, nanotechnology is defined as the science, engineering, and technology conducted at the nanoscale, which is about 1–100 nm. In the past few decades, nanotechnology has made its way to the agriculture industry. The ideas of nanotechnology have been applied to create pesticides and fertilizers that are at the nanoscale to reduce the ecological harm they cause and to increase the efficiency of fertilizers and pesticides. With the production of these new products it looked very promising for the agriculture industry, and it has been. Many studies have shown that the use of nanotechnology in agriculture can increase crop yield and nutrient levels in the crop being harvested. These developments have been important because of the recent amount of food scarcity, droughts, and lack of nutritious food around the globe. Attention to these atrocities has brought the concept of global sustainability, which is defined by Cambridge as humans and nature, societies and the biosphere, and the world and the Earth can coexist in ways that ...