Cost-benefit analysis of nanofertilizers and nanopesticides emphasizes the need to improve the efficiency of nanoformulations for widescale adoption

Yiming Su; Xuefei Zhou; Huan Meng; Tian Xia; Haizhou Liu; Philippe Rolshausen; Caroline Roper; Joan E McLean; Yalei Zhang; Arturo A Keller; David Jassby

doi:10.1038/s43016-022-00647-z

Cost-benefit analysis of nanofertilizers and nanopesticides emphasizes the need to improve the efficiency of nanoformulations for widescale adoption

Nat Food. 2022 Dec;3(12):1020-1030. doi: 10.1038/s43016-022-00647-z. Epub 2022 Dec 1.

Authors

Yiming Su¹, Xuefei Zhou², Huan Meng³, Tian Xia⁴, Haizhou Liu⁵, Philippe Rolshausen⁶, Caroline Roper⁷, Joan E McLean⁸, Yalei Zhang², Arturo A Keller⁹, David Jassby¹⁰

Affiliations

¹ Utah Water Research Laboratory, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA. yiming.su@usu.edu.
² State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, National Facility Agriculture Engineering Technology Research Center, Tongji University, Shanghai, China.
³ CAS Key Laboratory for Biomedical Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety and CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing, China.
⁴ Division of NanoMedicine, Department of Medicine, California NanoSystems Institute, David Geffen School of Medicine University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
⁵ Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Riverside, CA, USA.
⁶ Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, University of California, Riverside, CA, USA.
⁷ Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, University of California, Riverside, CA, USA.
⁸ Utah Water Research Laboratory, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA.
⁹ Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA. jassby@ucla.edu.

PMID: 37118298
DOI: 10.1038/s43016-022-00647-z

Abstract

Nanotechnology-based approaches have demonstrated encouraging results for sustainable agriculture production, particularly in the field of fertilizers and pesticide innovation. It is essential to evaluate the economic and environmental benefits of these nanoformulations. Here we estimate the potential revenue gain/loss associated with nanofertilizer and/or nanopesticide use, calculate the greenhouse gas emissions change from the use of nanofertilizer and identify feasible applications and critical issues. The cost-benefit analysis demonstrates that, while current nanoformulations show promise in increasing the net revenue from crops and lowering the environmental impact, further improving the efficiency of nanoformulations is necessary for their widescale adoption. Innovating nanoformulation for targeted delivery, lowering the greenhouse gas emissions associated with nanomaterials and minimizing the content of nanomaterials in the derived nanofertilizers or pesticides can substantially improve both economic and environmental benefits.

Publication types

Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.