Chemical strategies towards controlled release in agriculture

Abstract With an increasing world population of nearly eight billion which is expected to expand towards nine billion by 2050, future food demands will rise unavoidably. Primary productivity of crop is at the center of the food and feed value chain. Excessive and low efficiency fertilization cause severe environmental and ecological problems, along with economic wastage. Next to fertilizers, also pesticides, plant growth regulators and other agrochemicals (e.g., stored animal manure and hormones) pose environmental issues and require specific technologies to ensure security of human health and the global ecosystem while increasing food productions. There is an agronomic, legal and environmental ‘demand’ to develop controlled release solutions to optimize agricultural practices. In this regard, (polymer) chemistry can offer a wide range of strategies to cope with the current issues related to biodegradation, overfertilization, pesticide use, efficient precision agriculture etc. through tailored material design allowing controlled active components release. Therefore, this review focusses on (polymer) chemical strategies to design controlled release systems in the agricultural industry, covering specifically the state-of-the-art from the past four years.