Title: Chitosan nanoparticles and their application in agriculture

Abstract

The demand for food is increasing day-by-day in line with the ever-increasing population. This puts extra pressure on the agricultural world to increase production within the limited land available for agriculture. Application of chemical fertilizers seems to be the only solution to double or triple the yield from the same area of land. Similarly, chemical pesticides are also extensively used to eliminate the pest and pathogen problem that can reduce the yield per area of the crop. However, these solutions have proven to have adverse long-term effects on the soil quality and biodiversity of agricultural lands. Chemical fertilizers and pesticides are also the number one agricultural pollutant. The freshwater sources have been contaminated with hazardous agricultural pollutants making it undrinkable. Overall, these chemicals have a very dis-advantageous impact on health and ecosystem. Chitosan obtained from the shell waste of crustaceans are a promising alternative for the chemical fertilizers and pesticides that are one of the main reasons of agricultural pollution. Chitosan nanoparticles (ChNP) have been reported to have very good plant growth promoting capacity in many crop plants. There are many studies demonstrating the positive effect of ChNP on promoting plant growth of various crops such as rice, wheat, tomato etc. Owing to the antimicrobial activity of ChNP, it has shown to elicit plant defence reactions against many plant pathogens in plants. The biological origin of chitosan makes it non-toxic in nature. The soil toxicity, seed toxicity and cytotoxicity studies done on ChNP supports the fact that ChNP is a non-toxic compound. In this review, we will be observing the recent works on the agricultural application of ChNP.