Journal of Progressive Agriculture

The field experiment entitled “Effect of Agronomic Biofortification with Zinc on Productivity and Quality of Mungbean [Vigna radiata (L.)]” was conducted during kharif season of 2024-25 at Crop Research Farm, Department of Agronomy, Tantia University, Sri Ganganagar, Rajasthan (India). The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design (RBD) with eight treatments replicated thrice viz., T₁: Control; T₂: ZnSO₄ soil application (25 kg/ha); T₃: ZnSO₄ seed priming (0.5%); T₄: ZnSO₄ foliar application (0.5%); T₅: ZnSO₄ soil application + ZSB (Seed treatment); T₆: ZnSO₄ seed priming + ZSB; T₇: ZnSO₄ soil application + ZSB + ZnSO₄ foliar application; T₈: ZnSO₄ seed priming + ZSB + ZnSO₄ foliar application. The results revealed that, the significantly higher plant height, number of branches per plant, number of pods per plant at 45 DAS and at harvest; number of seeds per pod, test weight, grain, stover and biological yield of mungbean was recorded with ZnSO₄ soil application + ZSB + ZnSO₄ foliar spray, which was found statistically at par with ZnSO₄ soil application + ZSB treatment. The significantly higher crude protein and zinc content of mungbean recorded with ZnSO₄ soil application + ZSB + ZnSO₄ foliar spray, which was found statistically on par with ZnSO₄ seed priming + ZSB + ZnSO₄ foliar spray. Based on the findings of present investigation, it may conclude that soil application of ZnSO₄ (25 Kg/ha) + Zinc solubilizing bacteria (ZSB as seed treatment) + foliar spray of ZnSO₄ (0.5% at 30 & 45 DAS) gave significantly higher growth, yield attributes and yield as well as better quality of grain of mungbean.