Foliar application of micronutrients enhances crop stand, yield and the biofortification essential for human health of different wheat cultivars

Abstract

Globally about half of the world's population is under micronutrient malnutrition due to poor quality food intake. To overcome this problem, fortification and biofortification techniques are often used. Biofortification is considered a better option than fortification due to the easy control of nutrient deficiencies present in daily food. This field experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of foliar application of a micronutrient mixture (MNM) consisting of zinc (Zn), iron (Fe), copper (Cu), manganese (Mn) and boron (B) on yield and flour quality of wheat. The results show the effectiveness of foliar feeding for growth and yield parameters, in addition to the enriching of wheat grains with Zn, Cu, Fe, Mn and B. Compared to the control without foliar feeding, foliar application on wheat crop increased tillering ability, spike length, grain yield and the contents of Zn, Cu, Mn, Fe and B by 21, 47, 22, 22 and 25% in wheat flour, respectively. Therefore, foliar feeding of micronutrients could be an effective approach to enrich wheat grains with essential nutrients for correcting malnutrition.