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Nano-fertilizers for Balanced Crop Nutrition

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Nanotechnologies in Food and Agriculture

Abstract

Fertilizers play a pivotal role in improving the productivity across the spectrum of crops. The nutrient use efficiencies of conventional fertilizers hardly exceed 30–35 %, 18–20 %, and 35–40 % for N, P, and K which remained constant for the past several decades. Nano-fertilizers intended to improve the nutrient use efficiencies by exploiting unique properties of nanoparticles. The nano-fertilizers are synthesized by fortifying nutrients singly or in combinations onto the adsorbents with nano-dimension. Both physical (top-down) and chemical (bottom-up) approaches are used to produce nanomaterials, and the targeted nutrients are loaded as it is for cationic nutrients (NH4 +, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+) and after surface modification for anionic nutrients (NO3 −, PO4 2−, SO4 2−). Nano-fertilizers are known to release nutrients slowly and steadily for more than 30 days which may assist in improving the nutrient use efficiency without any associated ill-effects. Since the nano-fertilizers are designed to deliver slowly over a long period of time, the loss of nutrients is substantially reduced vis-a-vis environmental safety. The work done on nano-fertilizers is very limited across the globe, but the reported literature clearly demonstrated that these customized fertilizers have a potential role to play in sustaining farm productivity. This chapter focuses on synthesis and characteristics of macro- and micronutrient carrying nano-fertilizers and their application in achieving balanced crop nutrition.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nano Science & Technology, Directorate of Natural Resource Management, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, 641003, India

    Kizhaeral S. Subramanian, Angamuthu Manikandan, Muthiah Thirunavukkarasu & Christopher Sharmila Rahale

Authors
  1. Kizhaeral S. Subramanian
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  2. Angamuthu Manikandan
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  3. Muthiah Thirunavukkarasu
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  4. Christopher Sharmila Rahale
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kizhaeral S. Subramanian .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biotechnology, SGB Amravati University, Amravati, Maharashtra, India

    Mahendra Rai

  2. Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation-Instrumentation, Embrapa Instrumentation, Sao Carlos, Brazil

    Caue Ribeiro

  3. Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation-Instrumentation, Embrapa Instrumentation, Sao Carlos, Brazil

    Luiz Mattoso

  4. Institute of Chemistry Biological Chemistry Laboratory, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, Brazil

    Nelson Duran

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Subramanian, K.S., Manikandan, A., Thirunavukkarasu, M., Rahale, C.S. (2015). Nano-fertilizers for Balanced Crop Nutrition. In: Rai, M., Ribeiro, C., Mattoso, L., Duran, N. (eds) Nanotechnologies in Food and Agriculture. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14024-7_3

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