Agronomic Zinc Biofortication in Oat

Biofortification is a noble technique to enhance the micronutrient absorption in cereal crops. Deficiency of zinc and other micronutrient are considered a severe diet and health challenges in human food. Moreover, zinc deficiency declines the growth and yield of oat. Therefore, the current experiment was conducted to evaluate the impact of various concentrations of zinc biofortification on agronomic and grain of oat. The experiment was performed in pots filled with 20 kg of soil by using CRD (completely randomized design) with factorial arrangements. The experiment was comprised of five Zn concentrations and two oat Cultivars (V1: S-2000, V2: S-2013) with three replications. Various crop parameters, i.e., time to start 50% germination, shoot and root dry weight, initial and final plant height, root and shoot length, number of leaves per plant, number of total and productive tillers, spike length, number of grain per spike and grain yield were observed and recorded information was statistically analyzed by Fisher's analysis of variance and averaged values of each treatment were compared with LSD (least significance difference) test having a 5% probability level. Results reported that application of zinc and cultivars significantly influenced the yield and yield contributing traits of oat. With respect to cultivars, maximum yield and yield contributing traits were recorded in S2 (S-2013). With respect to the application of zinc T2 and T3 greatly influenced the yield and yield contributing traits of oat. Minimum yield and yield contributing traits were recorded in T4 that concludes that higher application of zinc leads to toxicity in oat.