Scholarly record
NANOFERTILIZERS FOR SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE: OPPORTUNITIES AND REGULATORY ISSUES
Abstract
Fertilizers are a fundamental agricultural input, necessary to maintain high yields and exploit soils and growing substrates that are otherwise unsuitable for plant breeding. Nevertheless, their overuse and mismanagement have led to significant negative environmental impacts, such as water pollution, high greenhouse gas emissions and soil degradation. Since the early 2000s, nanofertilizers have been touted as an innovation useful to improve both the sustainability and effectiveness of fertilization methods. The study briefly summarizes the state of the art on the use of nanofertilizers, focusing on the progress of relevant regulations within the European Union (EU). The aim is to evaluate the effectiveness of EU regulations in supporting technological innovation while simultaneously addressing potential environmental and social risks. To this end, a careful review of all European provisions regarding nanofertilizers is carried out, critically analyzing their political content and practical-operational repercussions. The results demonstrate that the current EU fertilising regulatory framework does cover nano fertilizers although not directly mentioning them. The conclusion is that due to the complicated interplay between all the interested pieces of legislation and some of their shortcomings, there is still a legislative vacuum that risks to obstacle a sustainable innovation in the field of nanofertilizers.
Publication details
References8
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