**4. Agricultural applications**

The increase in the world's population has caused an increase in the demand for food. This issue has caused a change from traditional agriculture to advanced agriculture and the use of new methods in the production of crops and livestock, fertilizers or even poisons. Plants are the main and most important renewable resource in the world, which apart from providing human and animal food, also satisfy chemical and industrial needs. New methods in genetic engineering, biotechnology, and biological control of pests and pathogenic agents are used to increase the quantity and quality of products and reduce costs and time. Therefore, we see an increase in the use of these sciences in various agricultural sectors. The ways in which alginate can be used in agriculture include the production of plants resistant to insects, pests and herbicides, the production of plants with high nutritional values and better taste, the production of transgenic animals that have special characteristics, such as high milk production or low-fat meat, creation of animals that act as antibodies, vaccines and drug production factories (**Table 3**) [4, 65].

The use of alginate in encapsulating plant probiotic agents has become very common, particularly for controlling disease agents in agriculture. It is an alternative method to chemical methods for pest control and decreases the negative effects on the environment. Alginate is the best choice for transferring disease-control agents into the plant because of its preservative properties, stability, non-toxicity and minimal interference. Some herbicides can be easily placed in capsules created of alginate nanoparticles. This work accelerates the transfer of the herbicide and also prevents the negative effects on some useful plants. A clear example of this is the use of alginate carriers in the transfer of paraquat toxin (a contact and non-selective herbicide that destroys weeds by penetrating the leaves and green stems of plants) [66, 67].

Biodegradable alginate coatings are used as protection for some plant growthstimulating bacteria or disease control. These coatings have been used to coat Bacillus

