Biofortification of Zn and Fe in Chickpea through Agronomic Intervention in Medium Black Soils of Karnataka

Abstract

Background: Bio-fortification, the process of integrating nutrients into food crops, provides a sustainable and economic way of increasing the density of micronutrients in important staple crops. Agronomic bio-fortification is the easiest, practicable and fastest way for bio-fortification of pulse grains with Fe, Zn, or other desirable micronutrients. Increasing micronutrient rich foods and improving dietary diversity will substantially reduce micronutrient disorders.Methods: A field experiment was conducted during the post rainy seasons of 2015, 2016 and 2017 at Zonal Agricultural Research Station, Kalaburagi, University of Agricultural Sciences, Raichur (Karnataka) to know the effect of soil and foliar fertilization of Zn and Fe on chickpea genotypes. Two genotypes (Annigeri 1 and JG 11) and six fertilization treatments (Control, 0.5% Zn, 0.1% Fe, Zn + Fe, seed treatment with 2 g Zn kg-1 seeds and soil application of Zn) were tested in medium black soils in split plot design with three replications.Result: The pooled data of three seasons indicated that the genotype JG 11, performed better than Annigeri 1 in terms of seed yield (1309 kgha-1), net returns (₹ 31634ha-1) and B: C ratio (2.52). On biofortification of Zn and Fe, foliar fertilization of Zn @ 0.5% + Fe @ 0.1% at flowering stage recorded significantly higher grain yield (1321 kgha-1), net returns (₹ 31179ha-1) and B: C ratio (2.44) over rest of the treatments. Further, foliar fertilization of Zn + Fe had significant influence on nutrient concentration (Zn and Fe) in chickpea grains. Thus, it could be concluded that combined biofortification of Zn + Fe to chickpea crop could be the viable agronomic intervention for getting higher productivity and nutritional security.