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Plant Science Today (PST)

Research Articles

Vol. 12 No. sp1 (2025): Recent Advances in Agriculture by Young Minds - II

Agronomic biofortification of zinc in baby corn: A strategy for higher yields and better nutrition

DOI
https://doi.org/10.14719/pst.9016
Submitted
22 April 2025
Published
05-10-2025

Abstract

Maize requires high nutrients and sensitive to zinc deficiency, which causes a disorder called “White bud” and is considered an indicator plant for zinc deficiency. Zinc deficiency is the most widespread among micronutrients and about 50 % of soils in our country are deficient it, leading yield losses in major food crops and contributing to zinc deficiency in our diet. Considering the above facts a field experiment was laid out in Randomized block design with three replications on a clay soil at the Agricultural College Farm, Bapatla. The treatments consists of soil, foliar or a combination of ZnSO4 applications at 15 & 30 DAS against control. The results revealed that the highest values for baby corn yield, green and dry fodder yield, per day productivity at 20, 40 DAS and at harvest, physical ear attributes such as ear length, girth, ear weight with and without husk, ear density and chemical quality parameters including crude protein, sugar, ash and zinc content in plant and ear were recorded with combination of soil application of zinc sulphate at 25 kg ha-1 and foliar spray @ 0.2 % at 15 DAS and 30 DAS i.e. T12 followed by T11, T10 and T9 treatments and the lowest values for crude fibre and husk percentage were also registered under the same treatment conditions.

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