Agronomic bio-fortification of wheat grain with Zinc and Iron.

A field study was conducted during the two consecutive rabi reasons of 2015–16 and 2016–17 at Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur, Uttar trient management was used as a strategies in our guest to enrich the wheat grain with two essential nutritive element viz., Zinc (Zn) and Iron (Fe). The experiment comprised three wheat varieties viz., PBW 550, DBW-17 and K₄0₂, two farm yard manure (FYM) levels viz. zero (FYMo) and 10 t/ha (FYM-10 tonne/hectare) applied at soil preparation, further, where as Nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P₂O₅) and potash (K₂O) at 150: 60: 40 kg/ha, were kept common and applied as basal, as well as top dressed, the zinc sulphate (ZnSO₄) and ferrus sulphate (FeSO₄) were used as supplementing agents, so as to achieve the objective of augmenting the proposed Zinc and Iron content in wheat grain. The ZnSO₄ at 25 kg/ha was added as basal and the FeSO₄ was applied as one percent foliar spray either at tillering stage (TS) or at flag leaf stage (FLS). The variety K402 consistently performed better both in terms of grain yield, and Zn and Fe content in grain. Addition of FYM exhibited a positive compact. Application of ZnSO₄ (as basal) and FeSO₄ (at tillering stage) recorded significantly (at 5% level of significance) higher grain yield viz. 4435.17 and 4691.70 kg/ha, along with significantly superior Zn viz. 45.68 and 46.94 ppm content, respectively during the corresponding two years of study. The interaction effect of varieties, FYM and Nutrient Management treatments was however statistically non-significant.