ECONOMIES OF NANOTECHNOLOGY

Dr.mousteid@yahoo.com

PREFACE:
Egypt lies in the eastern north side of the Africa continent. about 77
millions inhabitants live in a small long strip which constitutes less than
4% of the total land which is called Valley and Delta. Egypt is about one
million km square. most of the land is desert due to shortage of water.
River Nile, about1532 km inside Egypt, is considered the source of
available water to be used in all aspects of daily life. Egypt faces daily
food shortage as a result of limited reclaimed lands and scarcity of water
on one hand, and the increasing of population growth on the other hand.
So, the drive to address this shortage and to grow pest resistant crops,
which also maximize yield, is to use the knowledge-based economy. The
potential of Nanotechnology is considered a leading tool to revolutionize
all aspects of national Economy. Of them are water and agriculture.
1- What is Nanotechnology?
Manufactured products are made from atoms. The properties of those
products depend on how those atoms are arranged. If we arrange the atom
in coal we can make diamond. Nanotech enables us to fabricate new
generations of products that are cleaner, stronger, lighter and more
precise.
Nanotechnology is the self-assembly of individual atoms, molecules, into
structures to create materials and devices with new or vastly different
properties. In other words, it aims at reducing the size of the smallest
structure to the nanoscale to create physical strength, chemical reactivity,
electric conductance, magnetism, and optical effects.
Nanotechnology has been described as the new industrial revolution
which erupted recently. So the race has just started. USA leads the race
followed by Japan and the EU comes behind to occupy the third place.
Relating to the developing countries, China, India, Iran and Thailand are
also catching up the race. Each of them has a focused programme in
nanotechnology for the agriculture and food industry.
2- Importance of nanotechnology.
Nanotechnology is a breakthrough which has the potential to provide the
agriculture, food industry and water treatment with new tools for the
molecular treatment of diseases, rapid disease detection, enhancing the
ability of plants to absorb nutrients. It will also protect the environment
indirectly through the use of alternative renewable energy supplies and
catalysts to reduce pollution and clean up existing pollutants.

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It provides the ways of ability to determine the best time of harvest for
the crop, the vitality of the crop, and food security issues.
3- Applicable agricultural domains.
The main target we are looking for is to maximize the yield and output
with a high degree of safety and health components. Precision farming is
one of targeted domains. It has been a long desired goal to maximize
output while minimize input such as, fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and
water.
Nanotechnology actively contributes to increase use of autonomous
sensors linked to a GPS system which could be distributed throughout the
field for real time monitoring. (It has already been used in USA and
Australia).
Environmentally, nanotechnology allows an earlier response to
environment change.
Second, it has been noted the increase of use pesticides with DDT
becoming one of the most effective and widespread throughout the world.
However, many of the pesticides, including DDT were later found to be
toxic, affecting human and animal health and as a result whole
ecosystem. Nano devices with properties could be used to make
agricultural system smart. It could be identify plant health issues before
these become visible to the farmer. Smart devices will act as both a
preventive and an early warning system. The ultimate aim is to make
plants use water, pesticides and fertilizers more efficiently, to reduce
pollution and to make agriculture more environmentally friends.
Third, Nanotechnology can be used to clean ground water. Applying
these in ponds and pools effectively removes available phosphates and as
a result prevents the growth of algae. Nanotechnology can improve the
biology of different crops and thus enhance yields or nutritional values.
Fourth, Nanotechnology can be used in the food industry. The types of
application include: smart packing, on demand preservatives, and
interactive foods. It means that it enables consumers to modify food
depending on their own nutritional needs or tastes. Relating to smart
packing, such packing systems would be able to repair small holes or
tears, respond to environmental conditions such that temperature and
moisture changes and alert the customer if the food is contaminated.
Whatever the impacts of nanotechnology on the food industry and
products entering the market, the safety of food will remain the major
concern. The matter needs to strengthen the adoption of nanotechnology
in sensing applications, which will ensure food safety and security.

Egypt is on the road of nanotechnology.

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The reclaimed land in Egypt in the beginning of 19th century was almost
4.7 millions feddans and increased to reach almost to 7.8 millions feddans
in the end of 20th century. The percentage of increase the reclaimed land
has been about 60% whilst the increase in population has been almost
160%.simply, this imparities demonstrates a drastic shortage in food
supplies. From now and then Egypt faces deficit in food stock. It affects
badly the price mechanism and the medium and poor class standard of
living. Inability to increase and maximize the reclaimed lands to cope
with the tremendous population growth was due to misuse and
unavailability of clean water. Waves of desertification, drought and
degradation of the land have been striking Egypt without taking
convenient and focused programmes.
From 1984 to 1994 Egypt has lost about 52 thousands feddans owing to
unplanned expanding in construction and building.
The deterioration of the reclaimed land has been leading to loss of 20% of
the gross national product. As for water, Egypt's share from the River
Nile, the main and almost the sole source of clean water, is about 55.5
milliard liter cubic. About 4 milliard liters cubic are consumed by the
household sector, about 2.5 milliard liters cubic are consumed by the
industrial sector and the remaining quantities are going to the agricultural
sector.
Water and land pollution and misuse:
Water is polluted naturally, chemically, biologically and thermal
pollutants. These pollutants contain petroleum, plastic products, industrial
waste, and pesticides.
Misuse is coming from the classic modes of irrigation.
Soil is polluted by the agricultural chemicals, sanitary drainage water
and manufacturing waste.
The solutions for these problems must rely on knowledge and technology
whether in use the water rationally or in modification.

Egypt has joined a research center" IBM" to establish the first north
African nanotechnology research centre in Cairo, the second in the Arab
world after a similar announcement in Saudi Arabia, which launched in
2009.
This will enable Egypt to implement the science and technology strategy
and reflected a commitment to investing in the development of highly –
skilled, capable young people and consequently, a knowledge-based
economy.
How can Egypt benefit from nanotechnology in agriculture?
Agriculture sector stands for almost 20% of the gross domestic product. It
includes almost 30% of the total labor force. It is a leading sector which
needs to be improved by nanotechnology as follows:

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 - Enabling the "Green Economy".
- Decreasing fossil fuel consumption.
- Increasing equipment life-span.
- Increase recycling capabilities.
- Increasing farm sustainability while decreasing
environmental impact through using sensors in the fields.
- Increasing global food security and decreasing input costs,
increasing yields and decreasing post harvest loss.
- Post-harvest, non-food biomass.
- Improving food safety through smart packing enabling less
food waste.
The authorities in the developing countries and Egypt in particular,
should encourage the scientific researches in agricultural to know the
factors resulted in raising the salty of the soil, water movement in the
soil, rate of evaporation and nature and components of the soil.
Development, adoption and adjustment processes should be
implemented practically.
This helps to develop the traditional methods of irrigation which
depend on sprinkling and dropping methods and develop the methods
of reuse and save of water. For instance, kilogram of wheat consumes
500/600 liter of water, one kilogram of rice consumes 2000/2500 liter
of water, kilogram of meat in the animal body needs 25000 liter of
water to be formed and kilogram of milk needs 10000 liter of water to
be formed. In this contest we should not forget that only .06 of the
total available water is clean water.