An Overview of Green Nanotechnology as a Contemporary Instrument for Sustainable Agriculture

Green chemistry, which synthesises chemicals with less toxicity or reduces the toxicity of hazardous compounds, is an important tool for attaining sustainability. Green nanotechnology offers answers to a number of international problems. Green nanotechnology is seen as a crucial instrument for attaining sustainability in the food industry, animal feed, and agriculture. Green nanotechnology uses biological processes to synthesise nanoparticles (NMs), which find wide-ranging applications in the sustainable agricultural sector and related fields. Various plant tissues, including leaves, stems, barks, seeds, roots, fruits, and flowers, have been employed in the production of nanoparticles (NPs). Diverse natural resources are employed to maintain the agricultural industries. As this book chapter is not intended to cover the whole possibilities of this recently developed field of medicine and study, we will confine ourselves to a quick synopsis of green nanotechnology and the ongoing attempts to explore its potential uses in sustainable agriculture and related fields. Different engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) affect plants in different ways and through distinct mechanisms. In order to create systems for sustainable agriculture, this book chapter also thoroughly examines the absorption, translocation, interaction mechanisms, and phytotoxicity of numerous ENMs in plant species. This review emphasises the benefits and significance of using NMs, together with the primary technological challenges that may arise during the implementation of sustainable agriculture systems.

Soil Quality: A Critical Review

From plot to national scales, sampling, analysis, and visual inspection of soil are common methods used to evaluate its condition and potential for use. However, due to the complexity and site-specificity of soils, the legacy impacts of past land use, and trade-offs across ecosystem services, selecting relevant soil parameters and interpreting measurements are not simple tasks. Here, we go over the definition, methods of assessment, and choices and interpretations of indicators for soil quality and related concepts. Assessing soil condition and potential usage involves a range of methods, from small-scale sampling to nationwide analyses. Despite their prevalence, these approaches face challenges due to the intricate nature of soils, their site-specific characteristics, historical land use impacts, and the need to balance various ecosystem services. Selecting pertinent soil parameters and interpreting measurements becomes a complex task. In this context, we delve into the definition, assessment methods, and the choices and interpretations of indicators related to soil quality. Our focus is on widely used indicators within agricultural land use. Notably, explicit evaluations of soil quality for specific risks, functions, and ecosystem services remain limited. Furthermore, there is a scarcity of systems providing clear frameworks for interpreting measured indicator values, hampering their acceptance by both policymakers and land managers. We explore innovative indicators that shed light on often overlooked soil properties and processes. Biological/biochemical indicators are under-represented but show great potential. Soil quality assessment should specify targeted soil threats, functions and ecosystem services. Increasingly interactive assessment tools must be developed with target users.

Digital Agriculture: The Future of Indian Agriculture

Agriculture continues to be the dominant economic sector in India in terms of providing a living. Of the population, 58.2% are employed by it. The success of the agriculture sector determines the nation's social change and economic expansion. Although the amount produced by agriculture per person has been steadily increasing recently, the sector's GDP contribution has been declining. The main issue facing the so-called agrarian Indian economy is the slowdown in agricultural growth. Numerous factors contribute to the slowdown, including inadequate public funding for R&D and irrigation, ineffective input delivery, fragmented land, antiquated tenancy laws, a lack of contemporary market and rural infrastructure, unsuitable input pricing policies, and so on. Agriculture has embraced technology as a solution to all of these issues. Information and communication technology (ICT) and agriculture are coming together to create a new growth engine that makes all production, distribution, and consuming processes more efficient. The evolution of Indian agriculture and the concept of digital technology are the main topics of this paper.