Agronomic Zn Biofortification of Cereal Crops a Sustainable Way to Ensuring Nutritional Security: A Review

Nutritional deficits in humans and animals constitute a hidden epidemic in many impoverished areas across the world. The staple foods of developing South Asian and African nations, such as rice, wheat, and maize, are poor in micronutrients. In recent past, a lack of food diversification i.e., cereal-based crops low in minerals, is another danger to nutritional quality and security. Because of the inherently low-level accumulation of nutrients in cereal crops, they are the primary target for bio-fortification among all crops. Among different micronutrients, zinc (Zn) is an important micronutrient that plays a vital role in a variety of physiological functions, and its scarcity will result in lower crop yields and productivity. Agronomic practices like application of fertilizers in soil, nutri-priming, foliar spray etc. enhance the availability and uptake of Zn in crops. As a result, the growth and development, quality parameters and yield attributes of crop enhanced significantly. Therefore, agronomic biofortification of Zn in cereal crop is utmost important to achieve nutritional quality and food security. Furthermore, biofortification boosted the crop productivity to alleviate hidden hunger, in addition to quality aspects, proving to be a sustainable and cost-effective strategy. With soil and foliar fertiliser applications, including amendments, the agronomic interventions boost the Zn concentration in cereal crops. In this review the importance of agronomic Zn biofortification as a procedure to improve cereal yield and as an agricultural solution to solve nutritional quality and food security challenges is discussed.