Book of Extended summaries ISDA

International Conference on Reimagining Rainfed Agro-ecosystems: Challenges & Opportunities
during 22-24, December 2022 at ICAR-CRIDA, Hyderabad
Integrated Approach for Zinc Enrichment in Rainfed Maize
P. Nandini 1* , P. Laxminarayana 1 , K. Bhanu Rekha 1 and T. Anjaiah 2
T4-15P-1064
1 Department of Agronomy, 2 Deparment of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry,
College of Agriculture, Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University, Rajendranagar,
Hyderabad-500030, Telangana, India
* nandu60109@gmail.com
Maize (Zea mays L) the ‘Queen of Cereals’ is the third most important cereal crop in the world.
Agronomic zinc biofortification in maize is useful to overcome the hidden hunger for Zn
(Muhammad and Abdul, 2018). Zinc solubilising bacteria are capable of solubilizing ZnO,
ZnCO3 and zinc phosphate through production and excretion of organic acids (Sruthi, 2013).
Micronutrients like Zn, Fe, B, Mo etc., are mostly used in polymer coating. Polymers are mostly
used in coating of fertilizers for slow release of fertilizer from polymer coated fertilizers
(Shahzad et al., 2019).
Methodology
The experiment was conducted during Kharif, 2019at College Farm (Plot no. B-8, Block-B),
College of Agriculture, Rajendranagar, PJTSAU, Hyderabad. The experimental site was located
at 17°19' 19.2" N Latitude, 78°24' 39.2” E Longitude at an altitude of 542.3 m above mean sea
level and lies under Southern Telangana Zone.Maize hybrid NK-6240 @ 20 kg ha -1 was sown on
ridges at spacing of 60 cm × 20 cm. Recommended dose of fertilizer (RDF- 200: 60: 50-N: P2O5:
K2O kg ha -1 ) N was applied in three equal splits (at sowing, knee-high and tasseling stage), total
P was applied as basal and K was applied in two equal splits (at sowing and tasseling stage).
Crop was entirely grown under rainfall which accounted to 680.8 mm.
Results
Plant height has shown a linear increase at all the stages of crop period. A perusal of data
revealed that plant height significantly influenced by integrated approach for zinc enrichment at
30 DAS, knee high stage and at harvest except at 60 DAS. On the whole, significant variation in
the plant height with T5 and T7 might be due to rapid cell division and elongation as a result of
availability of the needed nutrients to the plant at critical growth stages coupled with application
of zinc might have resulted in improvement of metallo enzyme system regulatory function and
growth promoting auxin production resulting in increased plant height linearly. Similar results
were earlier reported by Hekmatet al. (2019).
Sustainable soil management for resilient rainfed agro-ecosystem: conservation agriculture, organic farming,
INM, soil-microorganisms-plant interactions
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