4 O'Clock Forum: Can micro and nanoencapsulation contribute to pest control in agriculture?

A 4'Oclock Forum seminar by Leonardo Fernandes Fraceto, Professor, Institute of Science & Technology of São Paulo State University. Everyone is welcome to attend.

Pesticides are widely used to enhance agriculture yields, although the fraction of the pesticides applied in the field that reach the targets is less than 1%. Such indiscriminate use of chemical pesticides is disadvantageous due to cost implications and increasing human health and environmental concerns. In recent years, the use of nanotechnology to create novel formulations has shown great potential for reducing the indiscriminate use of pesticides and providing environmentally safer alternatives. This seminar will present some of the developments in nano(bio)pesticides as carrier systems for active ingredients and their potential to be used in sustainable agriculture, highlighting the challenges that need to be overcome in order to contribute to crop protection and increase food security.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Professor Fernandes Fraceto, received his PhD in Functional and Molecular Biology from the State University of Campinas (2003). He is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Science and Technology of São Paulo State University (UNESP), Campus Sorocaba and conducts materials science research, with an emphasis on health and environmental nanotechnology and applications of nanotechnology in agriculture. Prof. Fraceto has published about 200 papers in international peer-reviewed journals and is an Associate Editor of Scientific Reports [Nature], PLOS one, Journal of Nanobiotechnology [Springer-Nature], and several others. He holds 11 patents and has licensed one to an agri-sector company.