TY  - JA
AU  - Dhakal,K.
AU  - Magar,A.B.P.
AU  - Pokhrel,K.R.
AU  - Baral,B.R.
AU  - Issa,A.B.
AU  - Shrestha,H.K.
AU  - Vista,S.P.
TI  - Zinc and provitamin A biofortified maize genotypes exhibited potent to reduce hidden—hunger in Nepal
SN  - 2223-7747
PY  - 2022///
CY  - Basel (Switzerland)
PB  - MDPI
KW  - Zinc
KW  - AGROVOC
KW  - Provitamins
KW  - Cross-breeding
KW  - Maize
KW  - Hunger
KW  - Stress
KW  - Nepal
N1  - Peer review; Open Access
N2  - Zinc deficiency affects one third of the population worldwide, and vitamin A deficiency is a prevalent public health issue in Sub-Saharan Africa and South-Asia, including Nepal. Crop biofortification is the sustainable solution to these health—related problems, thus we conducted two different field trials in an alpha lattice design to identify zinc and provitamin A biofortified maize genotypes consistent and competitive in performance over the contrasting seasons (Season 1: 18 February to 6 July 2020 and Season 2: 31 August to 1 February, 2020/21). In our study, the performance of introduced maize genotypes (zinc—15 and provitamin A biofortified—24) were compared with that of the local check, focusing on the overall agro-morphology, yield attributes, yield, and kernel zinc and total carotenoid content. Zinc and total carotenoid in the tested genotypes were found in the range between 14.2 and 24.8 mg kg−1 and between 1.8 and 3.6 mg 100 g−1. Genotypes A1831-8 from zinc and EEPVAH-46 from provitamin A biofortified maize trial recorded kernel zinc and total carotenoid as high as 52.3, and 79.5%, respectively, compared to the local check (DMH849). The provitamin A genotypes EEPVAH-46 and EEPVAH-51 (total carotenoid: 3.6 and 3.3 mg 100 g−1), and zinc biofortified genotypes A1847-10 and A1803-42 (20.4 and 22.4 mg kg−1 zinc) were identified as superior genotypes based on their yield consistency over the environments and higher provitamin A and zinc content compared to the check. In addition, farmers can explore August sowing to harvest green cobs during December-January to boost up the emerging green cob business
UR  - https://hdl.handle.net/10883/22468
DO  - https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11212898
T2  - Plants
ER  -