Polymers as controlled delivery systems in agriculture: the case of atrazine and other pesticides

The exponential growth of world population of the last years increases the necessity to optimize the technologies associated to the agricultural sector. In this direction a smart use of pesticides is able to guarantee high productivity, avoiding problems related to their losses with consequent pollution issues. An extremely promising solution is represented by slow-release pesticides that are able to increase pesticides efficiency, lowering their application frequency, preserving the environment but still satisfying the requirement of the plants. So, in the last years, research efforts were dedicated to the development of materials that, at the same time, are cheap, environmental friendly and biodegradable. The aim of this review is to focus on polymeric devices used as slow release systems of pesticides. In particular strong attention will be dedicated to different polymers and different formulation strategies in order to understand the high amount of possibilities and performances of these devices.