Biodegradable nanoparticles to protect crops from diseases

A novel nanoparticle-based bio-degradable-carbonoid-metabolite (BioDCM) that can protect agricultural crops from pathogens has been developed jointly by scientists and reseachers of the University of Hyderabad (UoH), Indian Institute of Rice Research-Hyderabad and IIT-Kanpur.

The invention of these novel nanoparticles would act as shields to protect crops, especially the rice crop, from infection and diseases. The technology serves as a protective biological alternative that can be used to enhance crop protection against various diseases in rice crops, said an official release.

It has been developed by a team consisting of R. Balamurugan and Mou Mandal from School of Chemistry, UoH; C Kannan and Divya Mishra from ICAR-IIRR and Santosh K. Misra and Piyush Kumar from the department of biological sciences and bioengineering from IIT-Kanpur.

“I congratulate all team members and their innovation will be highly beneficial to farmers”, said UoH Vice-Chancellor B.J. Rao.