Review: Biofortification of Cereals with Zinc through Agronomic practices

Abstract

In the developing world, Zinc deficiency is a bigger most socio-economic concern for the human and constraints for crop production. The deficiency of micronutrients in humans is generally overlapped with the deficiency in the soil. Mostly zinc deficiency is prevalent due to the consumption of cereals because their grains are genetically low in zinc concentration. The zinc deficiency is mostly occurred in soil due to cropping intensification. Intensification of zinc deficiency in humans mainly occurred due to the regular consumption of cereals as a staple food. Zn plays a key role to regulate the different functions in plants, animals, and humans. In humans, especially zinc is required for the immunity boost up. Therefore, a rapid and complementary approach is required for the biofortification of cereal crops to control zinc deficiency in the developing world. In this scenario, the breeding strategy is cost-effective, competent, and requires a lot of time to biofortified the cereals; but, on the other hand, agronomic biofortification is one of the most competitive approaches and rapid strategies. In the agronomic strategies of biofortification, (I) the priming of cereal seeds increases the germination ability and their strength/resistance against biotic & abiotic stressors (II) Soil and foliar application of zinc fertilizer (ZnSO4) greatly increase the zinc concentration in grain cereals. Generally, soil with foliar application increases the zinc concentration in grains many folds. Chelation-based strategies play a key role in zinc uptake and remobilization. So, agronomic strategies with chelation help to increase zinc content many folds in cereal grains.