Abstract
Zinc (Zn) is a micronutrient, essentially required by plants, animals and humans. Zn deficiency in
humans due to the consumption of food with inadequate Zn content is of global concern.
Approximately, one third of poor world’s population is at high risk of Zn deficiency due to its reliance
on cereals for daily caloric requirements. The cereals, generally grown on calcareous soils have low
grain Zn. The major reason of lower Zn content in cereals is poor Zn bioavailability induced by various
soil and/or crop management factors. The factors responsible for low grain Zn are high soil pH, low
organic matter, salinity/alkalinity, water logging, and poorly managed soil fertility. Due to its critical
role in growth and development of humans, food with adequate Zn content is mandatory. This situation
demands some effective strategies for the enhancement of grain Zn content to overcome human Zn
deficiency. Zinc supplementation of food, Zn pills, breeding of high Zn uptake species, and
biofortification through fertilizers are being employed to address the issue. Among all strategies, Zn
biofortification through fertilizers is an effective and economical technique. Mineral Zn fertilizers are
applied alone or in combination with organic and biofertilizers. Integrated use of mineral, organic and
biofertilizers improves Zn uptake and assimilation in cereals grains. Nanotechnology and
enrichment/coating techniques are also effective to enhance grains Zn. This review critically discuss
the efficiency of various strategies to promote Zn availability and uptake by plants that assure food and
nutrition security. Zn enriched/coated urea is considered an effective tool to ensure crops with optimum
concentration of Zn for human consumption.
Qudsia Nazir, Azhar Hussain, Muhammad Imran, Sajid Mahmood, Muhammad Mazhar Iqbal. (2016) ZINC BIOFORTIFICATION OF CEREALS THROUGH FERTILIZERS: RECENT ADVANCES AND FUTURE PERSPECTIVES, Asian Journal of Agriculture and Biology, Volume 4, Issue 4.
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