Nanoscience in Food and Agriculture 1

341 Pages·2016·11.14 MB·English

by  Shivendu Ranjan

Sustainable Agriculture Reviews 20
Shivendu Ranjan
Nandita Dasgupta
Eric Lichtfouse E ditors
Nanoscience
in Food and
Agriculture
1
Sustainable Agriculture Reviews
Volume 20
Series editor
Eric Lichtfouse
Other Publications by Dr. Eric Lichtfouse
Books
Scientifi c Writing for Impact Factor Journals
Nova Publishers 2013
Sustainable Agriculture
Springer 2009
Sustainable Agriculture Volume 2
Springer 2011
Environmental Chemistry. Green Chemistry and Pollutants in Ecosystems
Springer 2005
Rédiger pour être publié ! Conseils pratiques pour les scientifi ques
Springer 2012, 2e édition.
Journals and Series
Agronomy for Sustainable Development
w ww.springer.com/journal/13593
Sustainable Agriculture Reviews
www.springer.com/series/8380
Environmental Chemistry Letters
www.springer.com/journal/10311
Environmental Chemistry for a Sustainable World
www.springer.com/journal/11480
Blog
Agronomy blog
http://www1.montpellier.inra.fr/agronomy-blog
Magazine
Publier La Science
https://listes.inra.fr/sympa/d_read/veillecaps/
Sustainable agriculture is a rapidly growing fi eld aiming at producing food and energy in a sustainable
way for humans and their children. Sustainable agriculture is a discipline that addresses current issues
such as climate change, increasing food and fuel prices, poor-nation starvation, rich-nation obesity, water
pollution, soil erosion, fertility loss, pest control, and biodiversity depletion.
Novel, environmentally-friendly solutions are proposed based on integrated knowledge from sci-
ences as diverse as agronomy, soil science, molecular biology, chemistry, toxicology, ecology, economy,
and social sciences. Indeed, sustainable agriculture decipher mechanisms of processes that occur from
the molecular level to the farming system to the global level at time scales ranging from seconds to cen-
turies. For that, scientists use the system approach that involves studying components and interactions of
a whole system to address scientifi c, economic and social issues. In that respect, sustainable agriculture
is not a classical, narrow science. Instead of solving problems using the classical painkiller approach that
treats only negative impacts, sustainable agriculture treats problem sources.
Because most actual society issues are now intertwined, global, and fast-developing, sustainable
agriculture will bring solutions to build a safer world. This book series gathers review articles that ana-
lyze current agricultural issues and knowledge, then propose alternative solutions. It will therefore help
all scientists, decision-makers, professors, farmers and politicians who wish to build a safe agriculture,
energy and food system for future generations.
More information about this series at h ttp://www.springer.com/series/8380
Shivendu Ranjan • Nandita Dasgupta
Eric Lichtfouse
Editors
Nanoscience in Food
and Agriculture 1
Editors
Shivendu Ranjan Nandita Dasgupta
Nano-food Research Group, Instrumental Nano-food Research Group, Instrumental
and Food Analysis Laboratory, Industrial and Food Analysis Laboratory,
Biotechnology Division, School of Industrial Biotechnology Division,
BioSciences and Technology School of BioSciences and Technology
Vellore Institute of Technology Vellore Institute of Technology
Vellore , Tamil Nadu , India Vellore , Tamil Nadu , India
Eric Lichtfouse
INRA
Dijon , France
ISSN 2210-4410 ISSN 2210-4429 (electronic)
Sustainable Agriculture Reviews
ISBN 978-3-319-39302-5 ISBN 978-3-319-39303-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-39303-2
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016947716
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016
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We dedicate this book to our parents
–The Editors
There is plenty of room at the bottom
–Richard Feynman

Pref ace
T his book is the fi rst of several volumes on Nanoscience and Food in Agriculture,
which will be published in series Sustainable Agriculture Reviews. Nanotechnology
is a fast-evolving discipline that already produces outstanding basic knowledge and
industrial applications for the benefi t of society. Whereas the fi rst applications of
nanotechnology have been developed mainly in material sciences, applications in
agriculture and food sectors are still emerging. Due to a rapid population growth,
there is a need to produce food and beverages in a more effi cient, safe and sustain-
able way. Here nanotechnology is a promising way to improve crop production,
water quality, nutrition, packaging, and food security. There are actually a few com-
prehensive reviews and clear textbooks on nanotechnology in agriculture, water,
and food. Therefore in this book we present ten chapters describing the synthesis
and application of nanomaterials for health, food and agriculture. Applications to
agriculture, food and water quality are symbolized in Fig. 1 .
Defi nitions and an overall view of nanotechnology applications in agriculture,
food, water and environment are described in the two fi rst chapters by Dasgupta

Fig. 1 N anotechnology will allow to improve the quality of water and food. L eft: Roselette lake
and Mont Blanc mountains, France (Copyright: G. Balvay/INRA 2015). Right: Ebly wheat rhu-
barb salad (Copyright: P. Libert/INRA 2015)
vii
viii Preface

Fig. 2 Major applications of nanotechnology in agriculture. Dasgupta et al. Chap. 1
et al. and Singh (Fig. 2 ). Health and environmental applications of nanotechnology
are presented in Chaps. 3 , 4 , and 5 . Shukla and Iravani review green methods to
synthesize metal nanoparticles and give applications to water purifi cation in Chap.
3. The removal of up to 95 % of contaminants by nanoparticles, nanotubes and
nanostructured membranes is described by Naghdi et al. in Chap. 4 . Yoti et al. then
review nanosensors for the detection of pathogenic bacteria in Chap. 5 . Those nano-
sensors can be used as biodiagnostics to control food and water quality. Food appli-
cations of nanoscience are presented in Chaps. 6 and 7 by Kuswandi and Sarkar
et al. Kuswandi explain in Chap. 6 that nanomaterials can improve packaging qual-
ity and that nanosensors can detect freshness and contaminants. The use of
nanoparticles to protect ingredients such as vitamins, fl avours and antimicrobials is
reviewed by Sarkar et al. in Chap. 7 .
A gricultural applications of nanotechnology are given in the last three chapters
by Pulimi and Subramanian, Chhipa and Joshi, and Shalaby and El-Ramady. Pulimi
and Subramanian explain in Chap. 8 that nanoclays, nanozeolites and nanominerals
can be used as plant nutrient carriers, and to improve water retention in soils. They
also describe the used of nanoparticles to improve classical methods of pollutant
Preface ix
remediation such as phytoremediation and electrokinetic degradation. Chhipa and
Joshi review the use of nanofertilisers, nanopesticides and nanosensors in agricul-
ture in Chap. 9 . Nanosensors are particularly useful in precision agriculture because
they detect pests locally in real-time, which allow to treat them fast with minimal
side-effects. In Chap. 1 0 , Shalaby and El-Ramady reveal the benefi ts of zinc oxide
and silicon nanofertilisers for plant growth.
Thanks for reading
Vellore , TN , India Shivendu Ranjan
Nandita Dasgupta
Dijon , France Eric Lichtfouse