Microfluidic Devices and Their Application in Modern Agriculture System

Microfluidics involves processing or manipulation of minute fluid volumes from 10−9 to 10−18 litres using channels with dimensions of the order of 1–100 µm. The technological implications give this field importance where the purpose is to develop entire laboratory functionalities within a hand-held chip. Recently, owing to great interest in miniaturization, microfluidics is used in many scientific fields. The list of feasible applications and the developed systems in various scientific fields is very long. This chapter focuses on the application of microfluidics-based sensors in agriculture and food science. After a brief description of the basics in microfluidics, a special phenomenon associated with the microscale is introduced. Concurrent technologies in the field of agriculture are then discussed in detail; primarily concerning its application as sensors for food safety and security. Several constraints are elaborately examined wherein detection of toxins such as pathogens within the crop or food, pesticide concentration and other miscellaneous additives like heavy metals becomes vital.