BY 2050, THE GLOBAL POPULATION WILL EXCEED 9 BILLION, MAKING MAINTAINING GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY ONE OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT CHALLENGES WE FACE AS A SPECIES. FOOD PRODUCTION WILL NEED TO INCREASE BY 70% BUT IMPORTANTLY, YEAR-OVER-YEAR-YIELD INCREASES FOR MANY CROPS HAVE BEEN DECLINING. ADDITIONALLY, THE LACK OF SUSTAINABILITY OF CURRENT AGRICULTURE WILL CONFOUND MAINTAINING GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY. FOR EXAMPLE, THE LOW EFFICIENCY OF NUTRIENT DELIVERY (10-20%) IS A SIGNIFICANT CONSTRAINT, WASTING ENERGY AND WATER RESOURCES, AND CAUSING ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE AS GROWERS "OVER-APPLY" TO ADEQUATELY FEED CROPS. CONSEQUENTLY, THERE HAS BEEN GREAT INTEREST IN NANO-ENABLED APPROACHES TO INCREASE BOTH THE EFFICIENCY AND TARGETING OF NUTRIENT DELIVERY IN AGRICULTURE. ONE MAJOR NUTRIENT OF CONCERN IS PHOSPHORUS. PHOSPHORUS USE WILL EXCEED 26,000 GG/YEAR BY 2050, ALTHOUGH DELIVERY EFFICIENCY IS TYPICALLY ONLY 10-15%. IN ADDITION TO BEING UNSUSTAINABLE, THE EXCESSIVE USE OF P IS A THREAT TO AQUATIC ENVIRONMENTS AND HUMAN HEALTH. WE HAVE PRELIMINARY DATA DEMONSTRATING THAT A BIODEGRADABLE POLYMER-NANOPARTICLE COMPOSITE CONTAINING PHOSPHATE NANOPARTICLES PROMOTES PLANT GROWTH AS EFFECTIVELY AS TRADITIONAL FERTILIZERS WHILE REDUCING P RUN OFF BY 10-FOLD. BUILDING ON THIS, WE WILL DEVELOP A SUITE OF P-CONTAINING BIODEGRADABLE POLYMER NANOCOMPOSITES ABLE TO DELIVER NUTRITIONALLY REQUIRED AMOUNTS OF P TO DIFFERENT CROPS IN A SPATIALLY AND TEMPORALLY PRECISE FASHION. MOREOVER, THIS P DELIVERY WILL BE ACHIEVED WITH SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCED INPUT AMOUNTS AND WITH DRAMATIC REDUCTIONS IN ENVIRONMENTALLY DAMAGING P RUN-OFF/LEACHATE. THE LONG-TERM GOAL OF THIS PROJECT IS TO DEVELOP A SAFE AND SUSTAINABLE BIOPOLYMER-BASED NANOFERTILIZER PLATFORM FOR MACRONUTRIENT DELIVERY IN BOTH FIELD AND URBAN AGRICULTURE SCENARIOS.