THE EFFECT OF HYDROXYAPATITE AND IRONE OXIDE NANOPARTICLES ON MAIZE AND WINTER WHEAT PLANTS

In the last few decades, the intensive use of agricultural lands affected crop productivity and thus raised serious concerns due to competing demands for food to feed the ever-growing world population (projected to be 9.7 billion by 2050). In this context, the development of nanotechnology-based fertilizers for crop nutrition has been suggested as an alternative tool to overcome the drawbacks arising from the current agricultural practices. Unfortunathelly, there is little studies about the effects of nanomaterials on plants. In this study we presented the effect of hydroxyapatite (nHA) and iron oxides (nIO) nanoparticles obtained in Romania on growth and photosintesis of corn and winter wheat plants. The results show that hydroxyapatite (nHA) and iron oxides (nIO) treatments applied by watering the soil had a positive effect on the photosynthesis of maize and winter wheat plants. In the case of treatments with solutions of iron oxides a negative effect on the length of main root was observation, but a compensating effect was found by increasing root density. This and also the higher chlorophyll content. led to a positive effect on height of maize and winter wheat plants.