Nano-iron pyrite seed dressing: a sustainable intervention to reduce fertilizer consumption in vegetable (beetroot, carrot), spice (fenugreek), fodder (alfalfa), and oilseed (mustard, sesamum) crops

• Published in: Nanotechnology for environmental engineering 2016-12, Vol.1 (1), Article 2
• Main Authors: Das, Chinmaya Kumar, Srivastava, Gaurav, Dubey, Amarish, Roy, Manas, Jain, Shikha, Sethy, Niroj Kumar, Saxena, Manav, Harke, Sanjay, Sarkar, Sabyasachi, Misra, Kshipra, Singh, Sushil Kumar, Bhargava, Kalpana, Philip, Deepu, Das, Mainak
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Environment; Environmental Science and Engineering; Nanotechnology and Microengineering; Original Article
• ISSN: 2365-6379; 2365-6387
• DOI: 10.1007/s41204-016-0002-7

Continuous agricultural innovations are required to feed the exploding human population through natural or artificial resources. Though light is ample on earth, two-third of unavailable ocean and one-third of available soil are major limiting factors to free growth. Excessive fertilizer usage is irreversibly altering the chemical ecology of soil, further reducing the available area. Seed metabolism might be a potential answer to this resource crunch. Without genetic modification and thus maintaining the existing biodiversity, manipulation of seed metabolism at the very onset of germination is a sustainable alternative. The current work presents seed priming with iron pyrite (FeS 2 ) prior to sowing as one such sustainable and innovative intervention to reduce fertilizer consumption in vegetable (beetroot, carrot), spice (fenugreek), fodder (alfalfa), and oilseed (mustard, sesamum) crops. A 12-h seed pretreatment in an aqueous suspension of nano-iron disulfide/pyrite (FeS 2 ) resulted in significant yield increase in the above crops. While agriculturists aim to restore the natural genomic diversity of different domesticated crops, environmental engineers require technologies to reduce fertilizer consumption without compromising agricultural yields, thereby making the planet more sustainable. This nanoscale seed pretreatment approach using FeS 2 , otherwise a benign earth abundant mineral, suggests the sustainable opportunity to translate this technology to other crops thereby enhancing the global agricultural production.