Effect Of Foliar Application Of Zinc And Iron Fertilizers On Agronomic Characters And Quality Of Winter Wheat

Wheat(Triticum aestivum L.)is one of the most important crops in the world contributing up to 28% of the world edible dry matter and up to 60% of the daily calorie intake in several developing countries.Nutritional deficiencies are serious problems of public health in developing countries.Nutrition problems associated to Zn and Fe deficiency affect more than two billion individuals worldwide.The World Health Organization estimates that approximately 25% of the world’s population suffers from anemia and an estimated 17.3% of people worldwide are at risk of inadequate Zn intake.Agronomic biofortification is one of the strategies believed to be more sustainable,economical and easily implementable in fighting Zn and Fe deficiency problems.The study was conducted to study the effect of combined Zn and Fe fertilizers as foliar fertilizers on wheat agronomic performance,grain yield quantity and Zn and Fe concentration in grains during two cropping season 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 at Doukou Wheat and Maize Demonstration Research Station.A split-plots in a randomized complete block design with 3 replications was used and PASW Statistics 18 software was used for statistical analysis.Results showed that compared to control(0%Zn+0%Fe),net photosynthetic rate was increased with 100%Zn13,100%Zn9.5 and 100%Zn5.5 at 45.28%,73.07% and 39.54% respectively while 20%Zn+60%Fe13 increased up to 37.75% at the early filling stage and 100%Zn9.5 by the increase of 29.99% otherwise Zn an Fe had no effect.Flag leaf area increased at booting stage with 20%Zn+80%Fe13,20%Zn+80%Fe9.5,20%Zn+80%Fe5.5 and 100%Fe9.5 by 15.84,15.32,14.67 and 15.40% respectively,at early filling stage with 20%Zn+60%Fe9.5 by 36.25% and at late filling stage with 20%Zn+60%Fe13 by 25.73%.Generally,at all treatments the stalks dry mass show a more significant effect at booting stage and little effect at early filling stage and no effect at late filling stage.Results showed that treatments containing high Fe increased the grain yield.Grain crude fat content remained unaffected while crude fiber was enhanced up to three folds by 60%Zn+40%Fe5.5.Moreover,80%Zn+20%Fe5.5 was the best in increasing crude protein.Zn applied alone has enhanced Zn concentration in whole grain.Generally,when the concentration of Zn decreases and Fe increases in the applied solution,Zn in grain tends to decrease.In addition,Fe was slightly improved by application of Zn and Fe in the first year but the increase was much observed in the second year where 100%Fe13 was the best in improving Fe in grain.According to the results,the inference can be drawn that foliar application of combined Zn and Fe fertilizer can enhance agronomic performance and be a practical approach in biofortification of wheat in increasing Zn and Fe concentration and quality of winter wheat grains.