Metal organic frameworks: Innovation in fertilization and crop defense

As food demand increases, low nutrient-use inefficiency and significant environmental losses associated with the widespread use of conventional fertilizers and pesticides highlight the need for technological upscale. Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) are organometallic porous materials well-known for their high surface areas, various architectures, and the ability to be chemically modified. These characteristics have attracted attention regarding their use in agriculture, environmental remediation and food safety, particularly as controlled-release fertilizers for improved crop productivity; however, a clear gap between promising laboratory results and field agricultural use still exists. This review provides an integrated assessment of MOFs as multifunctional delivery platforms for nutrients and phytosanitary management, their performance, limitations, and practical applicability in agriculture. Recent literature on MOF synthesis, structural properties, and functional mechanisms is critically evaluated, with emphasis on their applications as controlled-release fertilizers and agrochemical carriers. MOF-based systems exhibit high capacity for nutrient loading and controlled-release properties, leading to improved nutrient use efficiency and reduced leaching losses compared to conventional fertilizers. MOFs can be utilized to deliver pesticides and antimicrobials in a controlled and gradual manner, while minimizing environmental effects through low-cost compositions with high crop protection efficacy. Additionally, some MOFs demonstrate intrinsic antimicrobial activity, capable of protecting plants and postharvest losses. Despite this, the challenges of material stability in soil, long-term environmental fate, potential toxicity, and economic cost remain bottlenecks to large-scale adoption. This review combines insights from fertilization and crop protection perspectives to illustrate the potential of MOFs as multifunctional agricultural inputs and outlines knowledge gaps in field performance, safety assessment, and upscaling. Interdisciplinary research that addresses these challenges is key to advancing MOF-based technologies beyond the laboratory and into practical large scale agricultural systems. Adoption of MOFs in sustainable nutrient management strategies can potentially lead to progress toward resource use efficiency, environmental impact reduction, and next-generation agricultural inputs.