So how important are nanofertilizers to the agriculture industry? According to one specialist, that importance is unsure.
“At this stage we are not sure how important they will be to the ag industry – it is early days, but nanomaterials can possess unique properties not displayed by the same material in a larger form that could be beneficially used to improve crop nutrition,” notes Professor Mike McLaughlin with the Fertilizer Technology Research Centre, Waite Research Institute, School of Agriculture Food and Wine at the University of Adelaide in Australia. “There are many claims about the potential of nanomaterials, but field verification of efficacy is often lacking. Serious concerns have been expressed in the scientific literature about some of the nanofertilizers currently marketed.”
McLaughlin points to an Opinion Paper published by Danish authors in Plant and Soil in July 2023 that investigated India’s largest fertilizer manufacturer, the Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative (IFFCO), and their claims. IFFCO recently developed and patented a nanotechnology-based fertilizer marketed as Nano Urea (liquid). The producers state that it is now possible to replace a 45 kg bag of conventional urea, containing 21 kg N, by foliar application of just 20 g N in the form of nano urea (NU). If so, N from this novel high-tech fertilizer product should be able to increase the NUE of crops more than 1000 times compared to conventional urea, noted the paper authors.
This year, the Indian government and IFFCO announced plans to massively boost production by building 10 new factories, withan annual production capacity of
440 million bottles NU by 2025 and to expand export of the product to another 25 countries, mainly situated in Asia, Africa and South America. In the marketing of NU, IFFCO states there is scientific evidence for distinct beneficial properties in terms of higher crop yields and reduced negative environmental impacts. Similar ambitions have recently been presented for Nano Zinc, Nano Copper, and Nano Di-Ammonium-Phosphate, a product that entered the market in March 2023.
In the Opinion Paper, the authors compared the claims made by IFFCO scientists to the existing scientific evidence in the field of foliar nanofertilizers. Their results observed that NU is a poorly described product with no scientifically proven effects. “The product is marketed with misleading and wrong statements about its fertilizer efficiency, the underlying plant uptake pathways, and the environmental friendliness.”
“The expectations raised by IFFCO are far from reality and may lead to large-scale yield losses with serious consequences for food security and the livelihood of farmers,” stated the authors. “At the same time, the confidence in innovative sustainable products as well as the science behind them may be threatened. Based on the IFFCO case, and considering the booming emergence of novel nano based fertilizers appearing all over the world these years, it is clear that much more priority should be given to scientifically prove their efficacy and mode of action, before they are launched on the markets.”
Indeed, the benefits of nanomaterials in a contentious topic with some strongly promoting them and others still highly skeptical that benefits are significant or cost competitive, according to McLaughlin. “There are many results from laboratory studies that suggest great benefits, but these are often not demonstrated in the field.
One company, however, is making inroads into the technology and is offering a different approach by offering a nano-sized carrier for standard nutrient products. Touted as the world leader in nanotechnology in agriculture, Nano-Yield has been supplying nanoliquid products to North America since 2014. The company states it was founded by farmers for farmers to help improve the environment and make farming a little easier.
Dr. Landon Bunderson, chief science officer with Nano-Yield, notes nanoliquid fertilizers are important to the ag industry “because they can deliver enhanced nutrient efficiency through better fertilizer availability and better delivery into the crop. If more fertilizer is going into the crop, that means there is lower waste and lower environmental impact.”
The company has contracted with third-party researchers to show that they’re able to reduce inputs and improve yield. Other studies have shown that some types of nanoparticles can improve stress tolerance and even drought tolerance.
“Nanotechnology is definitely the way of the future. Using nanotechnologies, we will be able to develop more sustainable fertilizers that deliver more efficiently, protect the environment better, and grow better crops,” says Bunderson.
Nano-Yield has a line of 12 products that both improve plant uptake of standard nutrients and provide supplementary fertilization. They’re formulated for a wide variety of crops, from bananas to citrus, from corn to strawberries.
“We're on large acreage in the U.S. midwest (corn, soybeans, potatoes, sugar beets), and large acreage in Florida (citrus, potato, vegetables),” says Bunderson, adding the technology is sold in India, Turkey, Bangladesh, and several Central and South American countries.
“We've got more nanotechnologies in our pipeline that will address other agricultural problems/interests,” adds Bunderson, saying the company would have more information on that in the near future.
While Nano-Yield seems to be a major player in the game, McLaughlin says more proof is needed before we see widespread use of nanofertilizers/ nanotechnologies in agriculture.
“They may be part of future fertilizer technologies, but significant benefits at a reduced cost need to be demonstrated before adoption is widespread,” he notes. For example, he cites some common key objectives that need to be met, such as improved nutrient acquisition by plants, reduced non-productive losses to the atmosphere or waters, reduced long-term storage of nutrients in soil, improved human and/or animal nutrition, reduced nutrient cost, simplified fertilizer manufacturing, and reduced energy use or waste emissions during fertilizer manufacturing.
“Marketing claims by manufacturers are much more common than scientific demonstrations of improved efficiency (for the same cost) of nanomaterials in the field,” says McLaughlin. “Even in the scientific literature, scientific papers often do not factor in the practical applications of fertilizer use in relation to cost, occupational health, safety and logistics – for example, dry nanomaterials would be unlikely to be acceptable for use due to dust issues and dangers to respiratory systems; granulated nanomaterials often lose their “nano” behaviour as they are not dispersed in soil.
“Nanosuspensions are probably the best way to supply nanofertilizers, but this fertilizer delivery system is not common in agriculture,” adds McLaughlin. “The costs of producing nanomaterials are often not considered in scientific publications. So, while I haven’t dismissed nanotechnology for fertilizers – and am still researching possible options – I have developed a healthy skepticism of inflated claims of efficiency and effectiveness.” ●
Lucent Bio announcedthe invention and patent approval of a biodegradable nutrient delivery technology that reimagines the delivery of nutrients, using non-water-soluble compositions to provide anext-generation alternative forcrop nutrition.
The company states this technological breakthrough is backed by rigorous scientific research and validation, marking a pioneering stride in theagri-tech industry.
“This patented technology redefines the concept of sustainable farming, by providing a fertilizer solution that is not only more efficient but also environmentally responsible,” noted Peter Gross, chief technical officerat Lucent Bio.
This patented technology is a result of a partnership between Lucent Bio and AGT Foods and will be harnessed through the companies’ joint venture AGT Soileos.
According to Murad Al-Katib, AGT Foods president and CEO, the collaboration between AGT and Lucent is flourishing. “We are nearing completion of the manufacturing facility in Saskatchewan (Canada), which will be the first of several global facilities bringing these smart fertilization solutions to local farmers. This patent is a milestone in the progression of commercializing Soileos,” said Al-Katib. ●
A team led by Prof. Wang Guozhong and Zhou Hongjian from the Institute of Solid State Physics (ISSP), Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has successfully utilized surface roughness engineering of silicon-based nanomaterials to achieve efficient delivery of essential nutrients to crop leaves.
Their findings, published in ACS Nano, reveal a new strategy for maximizing nutrient absorption in crops.
In this study, the researchers addressed the instability of certain fertilizers during application, such as the oxidization of ferrous element Fe(II) to Fe(III), which plants struggle to absorb. They developed a pH-controlled oxidation-resistant ferrous foliar fertilizer (ORFFF) delivery system using environmentally friendly silicon-based micro/nanomaterials as carriers.
By incorporating vitamin C as an in-situ antioxidant, the system alleviates iron deficiency in crops and enhances crop yield. The unique hollow structure and dense cross-layered nanosheets of the ORFFF enable it to possess excellent ferrous antioxidant capacity, high foliar adhesion efficiency, slow-release nutrient ability, and exceptional rainfastness on plant leaves.
In previous years, the team employed surface roughness engineering with nano-silica to create three new types of foliar nitrogen fertilizers with different surface shapes: solid, hollow, and sea urchin-shaped. Compared to typical foliar nitrogen fertilizers, these nanostructured fertilizers exhibited significantly higher adhesion on peanut and maize leaves, with adhesion abilities 5.9 times and 2.2 times greater, respectively.
Corn seedlings treated with the nanostructured fertilizers showed a 2.3 times improvement in nitrogen utilization. The micro-nano structure and high surface roughness of the carriers optimize their qualities and enhance fertilizer wettability and adherence to crop leaves.
In addition, to address magnesium deficiency in modern agriculture, the researchers also developed a foliar magnesium fertilizer called pompon-like magnesium foliar fertilizer (PMFF). Using an ammonia-assisted sacrificial nano silica template, they constructed the nutrient element magnesium directly on the nano silica template.
The release of magnesium from PMFF could be controlled by adjusting the pH of the solution during fertilization to meet the magnesium demands at different stages of crop growth. Tomato seedlings treated with PMFF demonstrated a magnesium consumption rate 9.0 times higher than that of standard foliar magnesium fertilizers.
These innovative findings offer a viable approach for utilizing intelligent engineered nanomaterials to facilitate the effective delivery of nano-agricultural fertilizers, providing new possibilities for enhancing crop nutrition and productivity.
Read the feature story on nanotechnology in this issue, here. ●
The novel pH-controlled environmental self-adapting PMFF have super-high foliar adhesion ability and high rainfastness property.Credit: Li Wenchao
