Sowing time and genotypes effects on micronutrient contents of wheat grain

Abstract

Wheat plays an important role in feeding the world, but climate change threatens its future harvest and nutritional quality. In this study, grain Zinc (Zn), iron (Fe), Manganese (Mn) and Cupper (Cu) concentrations of 07 wheat genotypes, were analyzed. The objective of study was, to find out the suitable genotypes having higher micronutrient content and yield. The investigation was undertaken in the research field of wheat research unit, Dr. PDKV, Akola (M.S), during the Rabi season of 2014-15 and 2015-16. An experiment laid out in factorial randomized block design replicated thrice. The experiment comprised of two dates of sowing i.e. 17th November and 11th December with 07 wheat genotypes namely AKAW-4627, AKDW-4021, AKAW-3722, AKW-1071, NIDW-295, AKAW-3997 and AKAW-4210-6. Among micronutrient content in harvested seed, genotype AKAW-4210-6 (36.80 mg/kg) recorded significantly maximum zinc content, the overall 13.93 % reduction occurred due to delayed sowing. Iron content significantly decreased under delayed sowing (39.48 mg/kg) as compared to timely sown condition (44.75 mg/kg). The genotype AKAW-4210-6 (52.25 mg/kg) recorded significantly maximum seed iron content. Manganese content significantly decreased due to delayed sowing (17.93 mg/kg) relative to timely sown condition (18.94 mg/kg). The overall 5.34% reduction in manganese content caused due to high temperature stress induced by delayed sowing. Genotype AKAW-4210-6 (21.69 mg/kg) under timely sown condition recorded significantly highest manganese content. The overall 19.12% mean reduction in copper content noticed under late sown condition.The genotype AKAW-4210-6 (4.06 mg/kg) significantly excelled all the genotypes. Among yield traits, reduction caused due to heat stress i.e. test weight (g) (2.70%), Grain yield (g) spike-1 (10.07%) and Grain yield ha-1 (21.12%). Among wheat genotypes AKAW-4210-6 proved superiority in yield i.e. 42.45 and 37.81 qt ha-1 respectively, under normal and heat stress condition.