Review—Environmental Biosensors for Agro-Safety Based on Electrochemical Sensing Mechanism with an Emphasis on Pesticide Screening

Abstract

Climate change directly affects all aspects of the environment and accounts for changes in our surroundings seen or unseen. With the growing need for accountability in the agricultural commercial and regulatory spheres, there is a widely accepted consensus that there needs to be quantitative information on the different environmental entities to understand and solve challenges posed towards food production and agricultural activities. The main purpose of the creation of this article is to propagate an era of quantitative metrics to better assess environmental health which can adversely impact human health. This review assesses 3 different environmental vectors prone to pollution and in high contact with human entities. This review also discusses different electrochemical sensing platforms used as biosensors for the detection of a wide myriad of pollutants with an adverse effect on human health. Furthermore, the breakdown of each section includes a survey of the evolution and design of various sensor platforms that are aimed towards a comprehensive monitoring platform for pollutant screening with an emphasis on agro-safety and environmental health. Detailed pesticide screening case-studies are also explored for a better understanding of the current electrochemical biosensors that exist for the sole purpose of environmental monitoring.