Printing technologies for monitoring crop health
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Agricultural production requires low-cost sensors capable of delivering reliable, high-resolution data across large areas. Rising food demand, limited arable land, and severe soil degradation have accelerated the adoption of precision agriculture, which relies on real-time monitoring of soil, plant, and environmental conditions. Central to this shift is the development of scalable sensor technologies enabled by advances in materials science. Printing techniques, including inkjet, screen, aerosol jet, 3D printing, and direct laser writing, offer versatile routes to fabricate flexible, large-area, and plant-integrated sensors. This Review surveys recent progress in printable low-dimensional materials for agricultural sensing, examines their physicochemical properties in relation to sensor performance, and discusses key challenges and future opportunities requiring interdisciplinary integration.
Date Issued
2026-02-25
Date Acceptance
2026-01-15
Citation
Nature Communications, 2026, 17
ISSN
2041-1723
Publisher
Nature Portfolio
Journal / Book Title
Nature Communications
Volume
17
Copyright Statement
© Crown 2026 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/41580442
PII: 10.1038/s41467-026-68778-6
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
England
Article Number
2009
Date Publish Online
2026-01-24