Pooja Kumari Meena, J. Choudhary, Arvind Verma, S.C. Meena, Devendra Jain and S. Ramesh Babu
Abstract
A field experiment was conducted during the rabi seasons of 2023-24 and 2024-25 to assess the effect of fertility levels and zinc bio-fortification on plant population and growth of barley at the Instructional Farm, Department of Agronomy, Rajasthan College of Agriculture, MPUAT, Udaipur. The experiment was laid out in a split-plot design with four fertility levels in main plots (absolute control, 50% RDF + 50% FYM, 75% RDF + 25% FYM and 100% RDF) and four zinc biofortification treatments in sub-plots (control, 2.5 kg Zn ha-¹ + zinc solubilising bacteria @ 5.0 ml kg-¹ seed, 5 kg Zn ha-¹ and zinc solubilising bacteria @ 5.0 ml kg-¹ seed), replicated thrice. Results indicated that growth parameters were significantly influenced by fertility levels. 75% RDF+25% FYM 75 % RDF+25 % FYM recorded the highest growth. Among zinc biofortification treatments, application of 2.5 kg Zn ha-¹ + zinc solubilising bacteria recorded maximum growth followed by 5 kg Zn ha-¹.