Nano-based smart pesticide formulations: Emerging opportunities for agriculture.

The incorporation of nanotechnology as a means for nanopesticides is in the early stage of development. The main idea behind this incorporation is to lower the indiscriminate use of conventional pesticides to be in line with safe environmental applications. Nanoencapsulated pesticides can provide controlled release kinetics, while efficiently enhancing permeability, stability, and solubility. Nanoencapsulation can enhance the pest-control efficiency over extended durations by preventing the premature degradation of active ingredients (AIs) under harsh environmental conditions. This review is thus organized to critically assess the significant role of nanotechnology for encapsulation of AIs for pesticides. The smart delivery of pesticides is essential to reduce the dosage of AIs with enhanced efficacy and to overcome pesticide loss (e.g., due to leaching and evaporation). The future trends of pesticide nanoformulations including nanomaterials as AIs and nanoemulsions of biopesticides are also explored. This review should thus offer a valuable guide for establishing regulatory frameworks related to field applications of these nano-based pesticides in the near future.Sandeep Kumar thanks DST, Govt of India, University of Nebraska (UNL) Lincoln, the Daugherty Water for Food Institute (DWFI), and Indo-US Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF) for financial support through Water Advanced Research and Innovation (WARI) research grant vide letter No. IUSSTF/WARI/2018/F-029-2018 dated 03-01-2018 along with HSCST, Govt of Haryana, India (research grant vide letter No. HSCST/R&D/2018/2103 dated 01-08-2018) and DST-PURSE sanctioned to GJUS&T, Hisar under PURSE program No. SR/PURSE Phase 2/40(G). Monika Nehra thanks UGC, India for providing financial assistance in the form of a JRF (award No. 3608 dated 29-02-2016). KHK also acknowledges support from the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning (No. 2016R1E1A1A01940995)