About "Nanoferti" Project

Nanotechnology has been playing a crucial role in 21st century in solving various problems in the field of agriculture, electronics and medicine. The broad range of applications shown by nanomaterials is due to the large surface area of the particles because of their small size (<100 nm in one dimension). The unique physico-chemical properties of nanoparticles, different from the bulk material, have attracted the attention of several workers to harness the multiple functionalities of nanoparticles.

Rapidly growing world population simultaneously harmonized with increase in the agricultural production to meet the future food demands. Given the limited additional arable lands and scarce water resources in the world and effective management of fertilizers is required to achieve the massive increase in agricultural production. Application of innovative nanotechnology in agriculture is regarded as one of the promising approaches. Investigation of the nanomaterial approaches in agriculture is required, if global food production and demands are to be met in an environmentally and economically sustainable manner.

The use of conventional chemical fertilizers at high rates and for a long period in the agricultural sector has caused serious issues; like loss of soil fertility, decreasing organic content of soil etc. In the present study an attempt is made to enhance the agricultural production using modern nanotechnology with micro irrigation systems. Here calcium carbonate coated nanomaterials of oxides of micronutrients, will be encapsulated in casein with biocatalyst like proteases are proposed as nanocomposite or nanofertlizers. The encapsulation technique is used to grasp the nutrient inside the carrier with polymer and steadily release nutrient to crop. Enabling nutrient carriage to the rhizosphere region and minimize nutrient loss and further improving the efficiency of applied Nanofertilizer.

The study is planned with the following Objectives:

1. Green Synthesis of the Nanoparticles (CuO, ZnO, MgO and iron oxide) of the micro nutrient.
2. To load the casein micelle with nanoparticles of the micro nutrient.
3. To encapsulate the casein loaded with nanoparticles of micro nutrients in calcium carbonate microspheres.
4. Characterization of synthesised nanoparticles and nanocomposites.
5. Conducting controlled experiments on plant growth and leaching studies