Simultaneous Biofortification of Wheat with Zinc, Iodine, Selenium, and Iron through Foliar Treatment of a Micronutrient Cocktail in Six Countries

Abstract

Field experiments were conducted on wheat to study the effects of foliar-applied iodine(I) alone, Zn (zinc) alone, and a micronutrient cocktail solution containing I, Zn, Se (selenium), and Fe (iron) on grain yield and grain concentrations of micronutrients. Plants were grown over 2 years in China, India, Mexico, Pakistan, South Africa, and Turkey. Grain-Zn was increased from 28.6 mg kg^-1 to 46.0 mg^-1 kg with Zn-spray and 47.1 mg^-1 kg with micronutrient cocktail spray. Foliar-applied I and micronutrient cocktail increased grain I from 24 μg kg^-1 to 361 μg kg^-1 and 249 μg kg^-1, respectively. Micronutrient cocktail also increased grain-Se from 90 μg kg^-1 to 338 μg kg^-1 in all countries. Average increase in grain-Fe by micronutrient cocktail solution was about 12%. The results obtained demonstrated that foliar application of a cocktail micronutrient solution represents an effective strategy to biofortify wheat simultaneously with Zn, I, Se and partly with Fe without yield trade-off in wheat.

Keywords: biofortification; hidden hunger; iodine; iron; selenium; wheat grain; zinc.