Zinc is an essential micronutrient for plants, animals and humans; however, it is estimated that its deficiency reaches around 30% of the human population. The recommended daily intake of zinc is between 8 to 14 mg, although most diets are insufficient. A food with a high nutritional potential, including Zn, is the potato. This food can contain between 10 to 25 mg Zn kg-1 in some varieties, and it is especially important in the food basket of the Peruvian population. One solution is to increase the nutrient content of foods through agronomic biofortification; that is, the fertilization of the crop with the application of fertilizers. In 2018, in the Cañete – Lima valley, a trial was installed for the agronomic biofortification of the UNICA variety potato crop, in order to increase the zinc content in the tubers. The soil presented a sandy clay loam textural class, moderately alkaline pH (7.7), low level of CaCO3 (0.3%), low level of organic matter (0.8%), extractable Zn of 0.4 mg kg-1 and extractable P of 11.4 mg kg-1. The trial consisted of three doses of soil Zn fertilization (0, 20 and 40 kg ha-1) and foliar application (0 and 5 kg Zn ha-1). The plots were distributed using a Completely Random Block Design (DBCA) with four replications. The results show that the foliar application decreased the tuber yield significantly; 27.1 Mg ha-1 was obtained in the control and for the dose of 5 kg Zn ha-1, 22.3 Mg ha-1. There were no differences in soil applications. On the other hand, it was possible to increase the concentrations of Zn in leaf and pulp; where the foliar fertilization treatment presented values of 637.7, and 20.7 mg Zn kg-1 compared to the control that registered 79.3 and 14.7 mg Zn kg-1, respectively. For the soil treatments of 0, 20 and 40 kg Zn ha⁻¹ it was 15.8, 17.4 and 19.0 mg Zn kg⁻¹ of pulp, respectively. Therefore, higher concentrations of Zn were achieved in potato tubers by agronomic biofortification.
Zinc is an essential micronutrient for plants, animals and humans; however, it is estimated that its deficiency reaches around 30% of the human population. The recommended daily intake of zinc is between 8 to 14 mg, although most diets are insufficient. A food with a high nutritional potential, including Zn, is the potato. This food can contain between 10 to 25 mg Zn kg-1 in some varieties, and it is especially important in the food basket of the Peruvian population. One solution is to increase the nutrient content of foods through agronomic biofortification; that is to say, the fertilization of the crop with application of fertilizers. In 2018, in the Cañete – Lima valley, a trial was installed for the agronomic biofortification of the UNICA variety potato crop, in order to increase the zinc content in the tubers. The soil presented a sandy clay loam textural class, moderately alkaline pH (7.7), low level of CaCO3 (0.3%), low level of organic matter (0.8%), extractable Zn of 0.4 mg kg-1 and extractable P of 11.4 mg kg-1 . The trial consisted of three doses of edaphic Zn fertilization (0, 20 and 40 kg ha-1 ) and foliar application (0 and 5 kg Zn ha-1 ). The plots were distributed using a Completely Random Block Design (DBCA) with four replications. The results show that the foliar application decreased the tuber yield significantly; 27.1 Mg ha-1 was obtained in the control and for the dose of 5 kg Zn ha-1 , 22.3 Mg ha-1 . There were no differences in soil applications. On the other hand, it was possible to increase the concentrations of Zn in leaf and pulp; where the foliar fertilization treatment presented values of 637.7, and 20.7 mg Zn kg-1 compared to the control that registered 79.3 and 14.7 mg Zn kg-1 , respectively. For the soil treatments of 0, 20 and 40 kg Zn ha-1 it was 15.8, 17.4 and 19.0 mg Zn kg-1 of pulp, respectively. Therefore, higher concentrations of Zn were achieved in potato tubers through agronomic biofortification.
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