For Agrositio. 28/06/2021 | 13:06
Climate change, population growth, competitive demands for land for biofuel production, and declining soil quality mean that it is becoming increasingly difficult to feed the world’s populations.
The United Nations (UN) estimates that 840 million people will be affected by hunger by 2030, but researchers have developed a roadmap that combines smart and nano-enabled agriculture with artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities that could help reduce this number.
Publishing their findings today in Nature Plants, an international team of researchers led by the University of Birmingham lays out the next necessary steps to use AI to harness the power of nanomaterials safely, sustainably and responsibly:
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Understand the long-term fate of nanomaterials in agricultural settings: how nanomaterials can interact with roots, leaves, and soil;
Assessing the long-term life cycle impact of nanomaterials on the agricultural ecosystem, for example, how repeated application of nanomaterials affect soils;
Take a systems-level approach to nano-enabled agriculture: use existing data on soil quality, crop yield, and efficiency of nutrient use (EUN) to predict how nanomaterials will behave in the environment environment; Y
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Use artificial intelligence and machine learning to identify key properties that will control the behavior of nanomaterials in agricultural settings.
Study co-author Iseult Lynch, professor of environmental nanosciences at the University of Birmingham, commented: Current estimates show that nearly 690 million people go hungry, nearly nine percent of the planet’s population. Finding sustainable agricultural solutions to this problem requires new approaches and integrating knowledge from various fields, such as materials science and computer science.
Precision agriculture, using nanotechnology and artificial intelligence, offers exciting opportunities for sustainable food production. We can link existing models for nutrient cycling and crop productivity with nanoinformatics approaches to help both crops and soil perform better safely, sustainably and responsibly.
The main driver of innovation in agriculture is the need to feed the world’s growing population with a shrinking agricultural area, while preserving the health of the soil and protecting the quality of the environment.
The intensification of agriculture has resulted in an extremely poor global EUN, which represents a serious threat to environmental quality, as large amounts of nutrients are lost in the water and air, warming the planet and almost 11% of global greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture.
Of particular concern is the emission of the laughing gas nitrous oxide as a result of over-fertilization of soil with nitrogen, which is 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide in inducing global warming. Approximately 70% of the atmospheric emissions of nitrous oxide of anthropogenic origin come from the agricultural sector.
Nano fertilizers offer the potential to target crop fertility, improve EUN, and reduce nitrous oxide emission, which can help support net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 under the goals of the Act of Change. UK climate.
The research team, which includes experts from the Hellenistic Military Academy, in Vari, Greece, and Novamechanics Ltd, in Nicosia, Cyprus, notes that nanotechnology offers great potential to improve agriculture in four key ways:
Improve production rates and crop yields;
Boost soil health and plant resilience;
Improve the efficiency of resources, such as fertilizers, and reduce pollution; Y
Develop smart sensor plants that can alert farmers to environmental stresses.
Co-author Dr. Peng Zhang, Marie Sklodowska-Curie Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham, commented: Computational approaches, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, will play a critical role in driving the advancement of nano-capable agriculture. . beginning to gain regulatory acceptance for the safety assessment of nanomaterials, enabling the development of safe nanomaterials by design for consumer products and drugs.
The integration of artificial intelligence and nanotechnology in precision agriculture will play a vital role in testing the design parameters of nanomaterials for use in the delivery of fertilizers and pesticides to ensure minimal impact on soil health, along with minimal nanomaterial residue left in the edible tissue portions, helping to ensure safety. and sustainable agriculture.
Source: Hemispheres
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