Enrichment of Rice Grains with Nitrogen, Zinc and Iron Ferti-Fortification

摘要

A study was conducted for two consecutive years (2013 and 2014) on loamy sandy soil at students' research farm of Department of Agronomy Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana to evaluate the effect of nitrogen (N), zinc (Zn) and iron (Fe) fertilisation on yield and concentrations of Zn and Fe in rice. Treatments included three levels of nitrogen (N1:75%, N2:100% and N3:125% of recommended dose of N, RDN) in main plot, 4 Zn treatments (Zn1: No..Zn; Zn2: soil application of 50 kg ZnSO4ha~(-1); Zn3: foliar Zn @ 0.5%; and Zn4: soil Zn @ 50 kg ZnSO4 ha~(-1) + foliar Zn @ 0.5%) and 2 Fe treatments (Fe1: No Fe and Fe2: foliar Fe @ 0.5%). Foliar sprays of Zn and Fe @ 0.5% were applied at anthesis and milking stages of the crop. Experiment was laid out in split-split plot design. Results of the experiment showed that grain yield increased significantly with application of 125% of RDN (10.40% mean increase over Nj) and soil + foliar Zn application (12.18% mean increase over Zn1 control). Concentration of Zn also increased at higher dose of N in grain and brown rice by 25.83 and 27.78, and 25.57 and 27.61% over N1, respectively. Combined application of zinc i.e., both soil and foliar application together, recorded 36.20 and 35.86% higher Zn in grain over Zn-control. Higher concentration of Fe in grain, husk and brown rice was recorded with application of 125% RDN. Higher Fe concentration in rice grains was obtained where Zn had been supplemented both with soil application and foliar spray (Zn4). Foliar application of Fe @ 0.5% also increased Fe concentration in grain, husk and brown rice significantly in both the years.