ABSTRACT
Population explosion in the world leading to the high requirement for food has obligated the need for optimizing the agriculture methods with minimal loss on fields. Crops are generally lost due to factors like pests, insects, pathogens causing plant diseases, environmental conditions, etc. Crops can be protected from these damages by the application of antimicrobials and pesticides. Due to long-time usage of chemical pesticides and antimicrobials, pests and phytopathogens have developed resistance. So, there is a need to develop innovative, cost-effective agents made possible by nanotechnology. Numerous organic and inorganic nanoparticles have been successfully developed and used against a wide range of agricultural pests and pathogens.
Many nanoparticles like gold, silica, titanium, silver, carbon, titanium dioxide, iron, and zinc oxide are used as pesticides. Metal oxide nanoparticles of CuO and CaO were developed and tested against cotton leafworm (Spodoptera littoralis), which showed potential entomo-toxic activity. Many nanoparticles based on the green synthesis method like Iron oxide nanoparticles were developed using Trigonella foenum-graecum leaf, against South American leaf miner Tuta absoluta larvae. Similarly, many nanoparticles like copper, chitosan-coated fungal metabolites, Copper oxide, sulfur, and nanocomposites showed antibacterial and antifungal activity against 130notable phytopathogens. One of the important bacterial pathogens of rice, Xanthomonas oryzae pv. Oryzae, which is developing resistance to general antimicrobials, had been effectively targeted by Copper nanoparticles of size 28 nm. Silver nanoparticles exhibited significant antifungal activity against phytopathogenic fungi like Rhizoctonia solani, Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, and Sclerotinia minor and were also confirmed using microscopic observation of hyphae. This review will evidence the applications of nanoparticles as an effective plant protective–nano control agent by protecting the crops from pests and pathogens and preventing heavy agricultural losses.
