measures, treatment or preservation of the harvested product. Apart from these important applications, nanotechnology can be used in sectors like food packaging, gene transfer for crop improve- ment, nano-food, etc. ( Fig. 1) the future, nanoscale devices with novel properties could be used to make agricultural systems 'smart'. For example, devices could be used to identify plant health issues before these become visible to the farmer. Such devices may be capable of responding to different situations by taking appropriate remedial action. Agriculture is the backbone of most developing countries, with more than 60 of the population reliant on it for their livelihood and also for developing improved systems for monitoring environmental conditions and deliv- ering nutrients or pesticides as appropriate; nanotechnology can improve our understanding of the biology of different crops and thus potentially enhances yields or nutritional values. In addition, it can offer routes to added value crops or environmental remediation.