Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
nanotechnology in the sense that they will become more specific, accurate,
and inexpensive. These sensors allow more accurate dosing of the nutrients
in agreement with the developmental stage of the plants. Moreover, the deliv-
ery of the nutrients to plants and animals can also benefit from the develop-
ments in nanotechnology, as we will see in the next section.
5.1.2 Nutrient Delivery
The primary plant production process on a farm is basically the conver-
sion of CO
2
, sunlight, water, and nutrients into complex molecules that form
the base materials of food and, more and more, raw materials for different
industry sectors. The animal production process is not very different in the
sense that it also requires water and nutrients, but since it uses the energy
content of the plant material in combination with oxygen, it does not require
sunlight. The delivery of nutrients to both plants and animals is therefore
important and needs to be optimal for optimized production processes. In
the animal production system, most nutrients are taken up readily with the
food the animal consumes; however, some very specific nutrients require
special attention since their availability could be too low in one-sided diets,
often occurring in animal husbandry systems where the animals do not
have the liberty to find food by their own instincts. In these cases, nutrient
delivery systems based on nanotechnology could be used to supply them.
Since these systems are very similar to those used in human food applica-
tions, these will be discussed in more detail in Section 5.3.
Plants do not have the ability to graze and change their location if certain
nutrients at their current location are used up. This means that in farm appli-
cations, they are dependent on human intervention to supply the nutrients
in the form of fertilizers. Unfortunately, this process is relatively inefficient.
Immediately after fertilization, the dose of nutrients could be too high and
the plants can develop diseases under unfavorable conditions. If there is
too much rain, the nutrients can be washed away into the aqueous environ-
ment. Not only are they then lost for the plants for which they were intended,
they also cause wild plants and organisms to overdevelop at places where
they are undesirable. Delivery systems based on encapsulation of nutrients
in clever materials, often structured at the nanolevel to create the desired
release function, can create more gradual release of the nutrients in a speed
that is compatible with the crop and a rate at which the plants can use it
o p t i m a l ly.
5.1.3 Crop Protection
Especially in vegetable production, infestations of different organisms can
create large damage to the crops. This is, in part, a negative result of the mono-
cultures that are used on farms for efficiency reasons, but therefore are not
less undesirable. Normally, when a pest is detected, many plants are already
