Email.ID: sudhat@uasd.in

Mineral deficiencies, mainly Zn and Fe, affect more than half of the world's population due to their reliance on cereal crops, particularly wheat, for their daily diet. Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), a widely cultivated and consumed cereal staple crop, can be used as a suitable target for Zn and Fe bio-fortification to fill nutritional gaps in cereal diet-based countries. Agronomic biofortification of wheat crop has gained popularity as an efficient alternative technique for achieving nutritional improvements.

Nanotechnology has the potential to contribute to a new technology-based agricultural revolution and provide possible solutions to several drawbacks of traditional biofortification.Biological synthesis of nanomaterials is the ideal option since it is cost effective and eco-friendly.

The experiment was conducted during Rabi season 2022 at Main Agricultural Research Station, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, Karnataka, India with an objective of studying the effect of biosynthesised Fe nanoparticles and in comparison with commercial Fe nanoparticles on yield, yield parameters and grain and straw Iron content. The experiment was laid out in randomized complete block design with three replications comprising of twelve treatments.

The results of the experiment revealed that seed priming @250ppm and foliar spraying @500ppm at panicle initiation stage with biosynthesised Fe nanoparticles through actinobacteria recorded significantly higher grain yield (4.56 t/ha) and found on par with seed priming @250ppm and foliar spraying @500ppm at panicle initiation stage with biosynthesised Fe nanoparticles through Pseudomonas (4.53 t/ha) and commercial Fe nanoparticles (4.49 t/ha).

The yield attributing characters viz., productive spikes (253.6m2), number of grains per spike (48.23), grain weight per spike (1.80g) and 1000 grain weight (42.19 g) were recorded significantly higher with seed priming @250 ppm and foliar spraying@500ppm at panicle initiation stage with biosynthesised Fe nanoparticles through actinobacteria and found on par with seed priming @250ppm and foliar spraying@500ppm at panicle initiation stage with biosynthesized Fe nanoparticles through Pseudomonas (251.6m2, 47.33, 1.79g and 42.05) and commercial Iron nanoparticles(249.6m2, 47.57, 1.76g and 41.87) respectively.

The higher grain and straw Iron concentration (76.85ppm,159.87) was noticed with seed priming @250ppm and foliar spraying@500ppm at panicle initiation stage with biosynthesised Zn nanoparticles through actinobacteria and found on par with seed priming @250ppm and foliar spraying@500ppm at panicle initiation stage with biosynthesised Fe nanoparticles through Pseudomonas(76.56 ppm 158.63) and commercial Iron nanoparticles (75.94 ppm,157.59ppm)