Improvement of Nutrient Concentration in Rice Grain by Zinc Biofortification

Abstract

The experiment was conducted in the research farm at Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU) to investigate the nutrient biofortification ability of rice grain at different doses of zinc fertilization. In this experiment two rice varieties (BRRI dhan28 and Binadhan-16) and five doses (0, 1.5, 3.0, 4.5 and 6.0 kg ha-1) of zinc fertilization were used following split -plot design with three replications. The concentrations of N, Zn and Fe were significantly and positively influenced by the Zn treatments. The crop varieties did not differ significantly in respect of N and Fe concentrations, but the grain Zn concentration was considerably higher in BINA dhan16 than in BRRI dhan28. The grain N content as well as grain protein content increased with the rates of Zn application. Application of Zn increased the protein concentration in rice grain showing that zinc had helped protein synthesis. The grain Zn concentration increased with Zn application rates in a quadratic line which indicates that Zn concentration in rice grain was increased by Zn fertilization, but it attained a maximum value up to Zn6.0 treatment which was 12.2% increase over control.