report
2.2.3.4 Water and Nutrient Control

Access to clean water is and will continue to be a global issue according to the WHO, which estimates that 20% of the world’s population have inadequate access to clean drinking water and that by 2025 the increased demand on water supplies will mean that each person will have approximately 25% the volume that they would have had in 1960.  Agriculture places considerable demand on fresh water and in turn, contributes significantly to pollution of groundwater through the use of pesticides and fertilisers.

In addition to contributing to decreased use of pesticides in the environment through improved delivery mechanisms, nanotechnology can enable better use (and re-use) of water, and active degradation of agrochemicals.  This will be of particular importance for the continuing “greening” of different global regions (e.g. sub-Saharan Africa) to boost the levels of arable farmland available to developing countries.