Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

NANOTECHNOLOGY AND AGRICULTURE

Achieving food security through the very small

Nanotechnology could make agriculture more efficient and more sustainable, but more systematic understanding of the mechanisms involved is necessary to prove the potential of nano-enabled agrochemicals.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Global projections.
Fig. 2: Nanotechnology can enhance agricultural productivity and promote food security by a number of pathways.

References

  1. World Population Prospects: Key Findings and Advance Tables: The 2015 Revision (United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2015); https://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/publications/files/key_findings_wpp_2015.pdf

  2. Alexandratos, N. & Bruinsma, J. World Agriculture: Towards 2015/2030: The 2012 Revision (Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, 2012); http://www.fao.org/docrep/016/ap106e/ap106e.pdf

  3. Ray, D. K., Mueller, N. D., West, P. C. & Foley, J. A. PLoS ONE 8, e66428 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Kah, M., Kookana R. S., Gogos. A. & Bucheli, T. D. Nat. Nanotech. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-018-0131-1 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Vaze, N. et al. Food Control 85, 151–160 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Wu, H., Tito, N. & Giraldo, J. P. ACS Nano 11, 11283–11297 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Giraldo, J. P. et al. Nat. Mater. 13, 400–408 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Du, W. et al. Sci. Tot. Environ. 578, 408–416 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Jason C. White or Jorge Gardea-Torresdey.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

White, J.C., Gardea-Torresdey, J. Achieving food security through the very small. Nature Nanotech 13, 627–629 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-018-0223-y

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-018-0223-y

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing