Zinc and iron foliar feeding on different lathyrus varieties influencing the biofortification, bio-availability and productivity

Globally two billion population is under micronutrient malnutrition due to poor quality food intake. Foliar fertilization of micronutrients is a deliberate attempt to increase its concentration in edible portion of crop and to enhance consumer diet with targeted elements. A two-year field experiment was designed to validate whether foliar application is effective for biofortification of iron (Fe) and Zinc (Zn) in lathyrus and its bioavailability as well. The experiment was carried out following split plot design taking three lathyrus varieties in main plot (V1: Nirmal, V2: Prateek, and V3: Ratan) and four foliar sprays at pre-flowering and pod development stages in sub plot (F1: Control, F2: 0.5% FeSO4, F3: 0.5% ZnSO4, and F4: 0.5% FeSO4 + 0.5% ZnSO4) with three replications. Zn (highest 3.73 ppm vs. 3.51 ppm in control), Fe (highest 6.68 ppm vs. 6.34 ppm in control) and protein concentration of lathyrus grain consistently increased with foliar fertilization of micronutrients either alone or in combination for all three varieties. F4 treated lathyrus had 21% reduction of phytic acid (PA) concentration, the main inhibitor of mineral absorption in human. With decreased PA concentration PA:Zn and PA:Fe molar ratio were reduced significantly. A maximum of 13% yield increase was also noticed with foliar fertilization as compare to control and the trend can be explained as F4 (13%) > F3 (12%) > F2 (10%).