Agronomic Biofortification of Zinc and Iron Nutrition in Wheat
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Date
2016-07
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University of Agricultural Science, Dharwad
Abstract
A field experiment was conducted to study the “Agronomic biofortification of zinc and iron nutrition in wheat” during rabi 2015-16, MARS, Dharwad (Karnataka). The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design having fifteen treatments with three replications. Treatment combinations included soil and foliar application of zinc and iron each @ 20 kg ha-1 and @ 0.5 per cent, respectively at two stages viz., heading and milky stages along with RDF.
Soil and foliar application of zinc @ 20 kg ha-1 and @ 0.5 per cent, respectively at heading and milky stages of the crop recorded significantly higher growth parameters viz., plant height, number of tillers per meter row length, leaf area, LAI and dry matter production compared to control. Further, it recorded higher grain yield (38.01 q ha-1), biomass yield (100.66 q ha-1), yield attributing characters viz., number of productive tillers m-2 (273.33), weight of grain per ear head (1.47 g), 1000 grain weight (43.99 g), ear head length (6.79 cm), number of filled grains (281), spikelet fertility (86.06 %), protein content (14.20 %) and sedimentation value (37.67 ml) over control. However, it is on par with soil and foliar application of iron at heading and milky stages.
Significantly higher seed germination (95.70 %), shoot length (10.43 cm), root length (17.70 cm) and seedling vigour index (2,697) recorded with soil and foliar application of zinc @ 20 kg ha-1 and @ 0.5 per cent, respectively at heading and milky stages.
Significantly higher uptake of nitrogen (124.61 kg ha-1), phosphorus (65.17 kg ha-1), potassium (149.89 kg ha-1) and zinc (165.29 g ha-1) and gross returns (` 60,752), net returns (` 33,074) and B:C ratio (2.19) was recorded with soil and foliar application of zinc @ 20 kg ha-1 and @ 0.5 per cent, respectively at heading and milky stages.