Journal of Environmental and Agricultural Sciences (JEAS). Ali et al., 2021. Volume 23(1&2): 1-10
Open Access – Review Article
Mitigating Zinc Deficiency in Plants and Soils through Agronomic Techniques: A Review
Muhammad Fraz Ali 1,*, Ali Ammar 2, Shahid Bilal 1, Ummar Ali 1, Noor Huma 3, Muhammad Adnan 4
1 Department of Agronomy, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan
2 Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Â Punjab, Pakistan
3 Institute of Soil Science, PMAS-Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan
Abstract:Â Zinc (Zn) deficiency occurs widely in plants and soils. The occurrence of Zn deficiency in soils is completely associated with high pH, low available Zn content, and high organic matter in the soil while in plants it is the combinations of chlorosis, rosetting, dieback, and depressed or abnormal vegetative growth. Due to Zn deficiency in plants, many diseases have been reported in humans such as it disturbs immune response and the endocrine system and induces and produced brain disorders. Deficiency of essential elements such as Zn can be mitigated by techniques such as food supplementation, food fortification, and bio-fortification. From these techniques, biofortification is an economical and appropriate technique as it proposed to overcome the micronutrients such as Zn deficiency by elevating their contents in edible field crops that are in the access of poor farmers. It improves the nutritious status of edible parts of cereals through genetic (conventional breeding, transgenic approaches) or agronomic (application of micronutrients via soil, seed and foliar techniques) ways. Up to now millions of households are receiving paybacks from diversified diets and consuming micronutrient-rich crops. In this review, the zinc biofortification of crops, through agronomic practices, crop breeding, and transgenic approaches are described briefly.
Keywords: Biofortification, fertilizer, hidden hunger, micronutrients, seed coating, seed priming
*Corresponding author: Muhammad Fraz Ali: frazali15@gmail.comÂ
Cite this article as: Ali, M.F., A. Ammar, S. Bilal, U. Ali, N. Huma and M. Adnan. 2021. Mitigating zinc deficiency in plants and soils through agronomic techniques: A review. Journal of Environmental & Agricultural Sciences. 23(1&2): 1-10.
Copyright © Ali et al., 2021. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium provided the original author and source are appropriately cited and credited.