Advancing nano-enabled Agriculture from Precision Application To Environmental Risk and Sustainability Assessment

Abstract

Purpose of Review

This review is dedicated to advancing the sustainable development of nano-enabled agriculture. Specifically, it targets the critical knowledge gaps in understanding the long-term environmental fate of agricultural nanomaterials (NMs) as well as their ecotoxicological effects on both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Further, it proposes an integrated assessment framework combined with targeted management strategies, with the overarching aim of providing a robust scientific basis for reconciling the agricultural benefits and environmental safety of NMs, thereby facilitating the safe and sustainable deployment of nanotechnology in agricultural practices.

Recent Findings

Recently, agricultural NMs research has increasingly focused on their application benefits and associated environmental risks, driven by their unique physicochemical properties and growing agricultural deployment. Agricultural NMs, including nano-fertilizers, nano-pesticides, and stress-alleviating NMs, have demonstrated remarkable advantages in enhancing crop yield, improving nutrient use efficiency, reducing pesticide loss, and strengthening plant resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses. However, these NMs undergo complex migration, transformation, and accumulation in soil-plant systems, with behavior shaped by soil properties, particle characteristics, and exposure routes. These materials can trigger oxidative stress, alter microbial community structure and function, and impair reproduction in soil invertebrates, yet evidence for chronic and transgenerational effects remains sparse. Most available data come from short-term studies, leading to inconsistent conclusions and leaving major gaps in our understanding of long-term ecological impacts. These findings highlight the importance of further systematic exploration of NMs environmental behavior and in vivo toxic effects, as well as the establishment of standardized long-term evaluation protocols.

Summary

This article highlights the substantial contributions of NMs to agricultural yield promotion and plant protection, while spotlighting their underrecognized environmental risks. It systematically dissects environmental behavior of agricultural NMs, their impacts on soil physicochemical properties and microbial communities, and associated ecological risks. To bridge this gap, we propose a comprehensive assessment framework that integrates advanced analytical techniques (e.g., SP-ICP-MS and XANES for tracing nanomaterial fate and speciation), expands evaluation endpoints to cover understudied exposure pathways and soil microbial function, and employs multi-omics (16 S rRNA gene sequencing and metagenomics) coupled with chronic, multi-generational ecotoxicity testing across trophic levels to systematically elucidate cascading ecological impacts. Furthermore, Furthermore, we introduce two novel forward-looking strategies to tackle the core dilemma of NMs applications in agriculture: a full life-cycle assessment (LCA) to track NMs behavior from production to disposal, and a toxicity-based classification management system that tailors regulatory measures to NMs-specific hazard profiles. Collectively, these innovative approaches offer a pioneering scientific foundation and a risk management blueprint to guide the development of sustainable and eco-safe agricultural nanotechnology.