Nanopesticides: a new paradigm in crop protection

TLDR: Throughout the chapter, the most significant achievements in the field are illustrated by carefully selected up-to-date examples, in each case highlighting the superior performances of nanopesticides relative to their bulk counterparts in terms of selectivity, efficiency, and reduction of the harmful environmental impact.

Abstract: According to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) there are 795 million undernourished people in the world, 780 million of them leaving in the developing countries. The average rate of crop losses caused by pests (weeds, insects, rodents, and diseases) lies between 20% and 40% depending on the type of the crop and on the geographic region and it exceeds 50% in the developing countries of Central Africa. Conventional pesticides exhibit a series of major drawbacks that severely limited the use of these chemical pest control agents over the past few decades, the most important ones being the harmful effect on nontarget organisms, the persistence in the environment, the biomagnification in organisms that are higher up in the food chain, and the emergence of resistant populations of target organisms. The present chapter describes how it possible to overcome these drawbacks by using nanopesticide delivery systems. Nanopesticides are classified and described taking the chemical composition of the nanocarrier (organic polymer-based formulations, lipid-based formulations, nanosized metals, and metal oxides, clay based nanomaterials, layered double hydroxides, silica nanoparticles) into account. Furthermore, within each of the aforementioned classes, nanovehicles are presented according to the structural and morphological characteristics individualizing each type of nanocarrier (nanocapsules, nanospheres, micelles, nanogels, nanofibers, nanoliposomes, solid lipid nanoparticles, nanoemulsions, microemulsions, nanodispersions). Throughout the chapter, the most significant achievements in the field are illustrated by carefully selected up-to-date examples, in each case highlighting the superior performances of nanopesticides relative to their bulk counterparts in terms of selectivity, efficiency, and reduction of the harmful environmental impact.