Agronomic bio-fortification and productivity of maize (Zea mays L.) through zinc application

A.S. AHMED; P.S. PATRA; R. SAHA

doi:10.59797/ija.v66i1.2828

Authors

A.S. AHMED
P.S. PATRA
R. SAHA

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.59797/ija.v66i1.2828

Keywords:

Bio-fortification, Maize, Priming, Productivity and Zinc

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted during the winter (rabi) season of 2018 and 2019 at instructional farm of Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya, West Bengal, India, to find out a cost-effective method of zinc application for improving productivity and profitability of maize cv. Kaveri 2018 cultivation in randomized block design with 8 treatments and 3 replications. Soil application of 10 kg Zn/ha resulted in significantly tallest plant, maximum leaf-area index (LAI) and dry-matter accumulation. Yield attributes, viz. cob length, cob width, grains/row and grains/cob, were found highest with the application of 10 kg Zn/ha and showed 23.98 and 19.80% yield advantage over the control, which was followed by soil application of 5 kg Zn/ha, seed priming with 2% Zn solution and seed priming with 1% Zn solution + foliar application of 0.5% Zn at tasseling stage.

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