Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Nanotechnology for Environmental Engineering (2018) 3:14 https://doi.org/10.1007/s41204-018-0043-1 ORIGINAL PAPER Nano‑pyrite seed dressing: a sustainable design for NPK equivalent rice production Chinmaya K. Das 1  · Himanshi Jangir 2  · Jiten Kumar 2  · Shourya Verma 2  · Shyama S. Mahapatra 1  · Deepu Philip 2  · Gaurav Srivastava 3  · Mainak Das 2 Received: 26 February 2018 / Accepted: 14 August 2018 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2018 Abstract The use of fertilizers has been the cornerstone in ensuring the global food security. However, the continuous use of excess fertilizers is polluting the water resources and damaging the fragile ecosystem. The key question is ‘how farmers could use lesser fertilizers without reducing crop yields?’ This is a challenge for the sustainable agriculture. Here we showed, in rice crop, seed dressing with nano-pyrite (FeS 2 ), without any addition of NPK (nitrogen, phosphorous and potash) fertilizer, resulted in a comparable yield as obtained following standard fertilizer application. The total grain yields from control (no fertilizer application), standard NPK fertilizer application, ‘FeS 2 seed pre-treatment only’ without any application of NPK, NPK + FeS 2 treatment were recorded as 1.32 ± 0.0, 1.61 ± 0.1, 1.63 ± 0.1 and 1.68 ± 0.1 [mean (in kg) ± SD], respectively. Interestingly, simultaneous application of FeS 2 seed pre-treatment plus fertilizer did not show any signifcant additive efect. Thus, nano-pyrite seed pre-treatment opens up an ‘NPK equivalent’ strategy for rice production, which could setup a new sustainable paradigm for rice growers. Keywords Nano-iron pyrite (FeS 2 ) · Fertilizers (NPK) · Seed pre-treatment · Rice · Paddy · Yield · Sustainable agriculture Introduction Rice is a high calorie, a staple food for 60% of the world’s population. Asia produces about 90% of the global rice. The decade of 1960 saw the green revolution of rice, resulting in the introduction of the high-yielding dwarf varieties. These dwarf rice hybrids soon became popular and replaced the traditional tall varieties, in spite of the fact that these dwarf cultivars required intensive use of fertilizers and pesticides, thus increasing the cost of cultivation signifcantly. Through the decades, extensive use of fertilizer and pesticides has resulted in signifcant deterioration of soil and environment [1–7]. However, as the current global population is reaching the 10 billion mark, the need for even greater rice production looms across Asia and other parts of the world. The present challenge in rice cultivation is twofold. First, to increase the production and second, to promote sustainable cultivation practices to safeguard the fragile ecosystem [8, 9]. According to the current estimate, only 30–50% of the applied nitrogen fertilizers and approximately ~ 45% of phos- phorus fertilizers is taken up by the crops. Thus, a signifcant portion of these applied N and P fertilizers remains un-uti- lized. Interestingly, agricultural felds still lose a consider- able amount of this un-utilized nitrogen and a comparatively smaller amount of the applied phosphorus fertilizers as they percolate and leach out into the surrounding water resources. Thus, such nonpoint loss of N and P fertilizers modulates the water quality, endangers the aquatic eco-habitat due to eutrophication and low-oxygen level and brings up unfore- seen changes in the atmospheric composition [10–20]. Chinmaya K. Das and Himanshi Jangir are equal contribution frst authors. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s41204-018-0043-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Mainak Das mainakd@iitk.ac.in 1 Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology, Ranital, Orissa 756111, India 2 Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, 208016, India 3 Bundelkhand University, Kanpur Road, Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh 284128, India