Influence of Agronomic Zinc Fortification on Quality, Productivity and Profitability of Rice: A Review

Abstract

Deficiency of zinc is a worldwide nutritional problem and intensity of the problem is even severe in developing countries. Rice grainis the key to meet a person’s daily energy requirements, but they are very low in zinc concentration, especially when grown in Zn-deficient soil. There are ways to address zinc deficiency viz., nutritional diversification, food enrichment and biofortification. There are several limitations regarding nutritional diversification and food enrichment which favors biofortification of zinc as a perpetual solution of malnutrition. Among the potential biofortification methods to rectify Zn deficiency, plant breeding approaches and agronomic biofortification offers major advantage. This review appraised the role of Zn in plants, zinc uptake, translocation and partitioning efficiencies in rice that is driven by various agronomic, breeding and biotechnological approaches. There is a genuine need to integrate zinc in rice production systems using agronomic and conventional breeding methods. Agronomic biofortification is economically sustainable and practically adoptable solution to overcome the Zn deficiency problem in rice.