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Nutrient uptake by the rice–wheat cropping system (RWCS) is an important indicator of soil fertility and plant nutrient status. The hypothesis of this investigation was that the rate and sources of nutrient application can differentially influence nutrient removal and soil nutrient status in different crop establishment techniques (CETs). Cropping system yield was on par in all the CETs evaluated, however, there were significant changes in soil nutrient availability and microbiological aspects. The system nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K) and zinc (Zn) uptake in aerobic rice system followed by zero tillage wheat (ARS-ZTW) was 15.7–17.6 kg ha −1 , 0.7–0.9 kg ha −1 , 7–9.8 kg ha −1 and 13.5–23.1 g ha −1 and higher than other CETs. The formulations of Anabaena sp. (CR1) +  Providencia sp. (PR3) consortium (MC1) and Anabaena – Pseudomonas biofilm (MC2) recorded significantly higher values of soil chlorophyll and microbial biomass carbon and positively affected cropping system nutrient uptake and soil nutrient balance, illustrating the beneficial effect of microbial inoculation through increased supply of biologically fixed N and solubilised P. Zinc fertilization (5 kg Zn ha −1 through ZnSO 4 ·7H 2 O as soil application) increased soil DTPA-extractable Zn by 4.025–4.836 g ha –1 , with enhancement to the tune of 20–24% after two cropping cycles of RWCS. Our investigation recommends the need for change in the present CETs to ARS–ZTW, along with the use of microbial inoculation as a means of significantly enhancing cropping system nutrient uptake and soil nutrient status improvement.

Globally, many developing countries are facing silent epidemics of nutritional deficiencies in human beings and animals. The lack of diversity in diet, i.e., cereal-based crops deficient in mineral nutrients is an additional threat to nutritional quality. The present review accounts for the significance of biofortification as a process to enhance the productivity of crops and also an agricultural solution to address the issues of nutritional security. In this endeavor, different innovative and specific biofortification approaches have been discussed for nutrient enrichment of field crops including cereals, pulses, oilseeds and fodder crops. The agronomic approach increases the micronutrient density in crops with soil and foliar application of fertilizers including amendments. The biofortification through conventional breeding approach includes the selection of efficient genotypes, practicing crossing of plants with desirable nutritional traits without sacrificing agricultural and economic productivity. However, the transgenic/biotechnological approach involves the synthesis of transgenes for micronutrient re-translocation between tissues to enhance their bioavailability. Soil microorganisms enhance nutrient content in the rhizosphere through diverse mechanisms such as synthesis, mobilization, transformations and siderophore production which accumulate more minerals in plants. Different sources of micronutrients viz. mineral solutions, chelates and nanoparticles play a pivotal role in the process of biofortification as it regulates the absorption rates and mechanisms in plants. Apart from the quality parameters, biofortification also improved the crop yield to alleviate hidden hunger thus proving to be a sustainable and cost-effective approach. Thus, this review article conveys a message for researchers about the adequate potential of biofortification to increase crop productivity and nourish the crop with additional nutrient content to provide food security and nutritional quality to humans and livestock.

Soil is an important natural resource providing water, nutrient, and mechanical support for plant growth. In agroecosystem, continuous manipulation of soil is going on due to addition of input, removal of nutrients, changing water balance, and microbial life. These processes affect soil properties (physical, chemical, and biological), and the deviation of these properties from the normal status is controlled by soil buffering capacity and soil resilience. If these changes are beyond the reach of soil resilience, then soil loses its original state, leading to soil degradation. At present, the extent of the degraded area in the world is 1,036 to 1,470 million ha. This urges the need for maintaining soil health rather than the mere addition of input for crop production. Soil health is an integrative property that reflects the capacity of soil to respond to agricultural intervention, so that it continues to support both agricultural production and the provision of other ecosystem services. Maintaining the physical, chemical, and biological properties of soil is needed to keep it healthy, and this is possible through the adoption of different agronomic approaches. The diversification of nutrient sources with emphasis on organic sources, adoption of principles of conservation agriculture, enhancement of soil microbial diversity, efficient resource recycling through the integrated farming system, and amendment addition for correcting soil reactions are potential options for improving soil health, and are discussed in this review. This article reviewed the concept of soil health and its development, issues related to soil health, and indicators of healthy soil. At the same time, the impact of the ill health of the soil on crop productivity and resource use efficiency reported in different parts of the world in recent years are also reviewed. The agro-techniques such as green and brown manuring in arable land and agroforestry on degraded and marginal land were followed on piece meal basis and for economic gain. The potential of these and several other options for maintaining soil need to be recognized, evaluated, and quantified for their wider application on the front of soil health management avenues. The use of crop residue, agro-industrial waste, and untreated mineral or industrial waste (basic slag, phosphogypsum, etc.) as soil amendments has a huge potential in maintaining healthy soil along with serving as sources of crop nutrition. The review emphasizes the evaluation and quantification of present-day followed agro-techniques for their contribution to soil health improvement across agro-climatic regions and for wider implications. Furthermore, emphasis is given to innovative approaches for soil health management rather than mere application of manures and fertilizers for crop nutrition.

Identifying appropriate nutrient management options is crucial for reversing the yield plateau and enhancing the nutritional status of basmati rice under the basmati rice-wheat cropping system of the Indo Gangetic Plain (IGP). Alternative to the conventional chemical fertilizer, ZnO nanoparticles as carrier material for the micronutrient Zn has shown promise in reducing the bulkiness of fertilizer use in the soil–plant environment. But whether its integration and interaction with an organic source such as green manuring could enrich basmati rice grain with micronutrients and promote protein nutrition is not well investigated. Therefore, we conducted a field experiment during the summer and rainy seasons (April–October) of 2020 and 2021 at the research farm of the ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi in a split-plot design with two summer green manuring (SGM) options ( Sesbania and cowpea, along with fallow) as main plots and six fertilization strategies as subplots: 5 kg Zn ha −1 as bulk ZnO, N at 120 kg N ha −1 as prilled urea (PU), N at 120 kg N ha −1 as PU + 5 kg Zn ha −1 as bulk ZnO, 1% bulk ZnO-coated PU, 0.1% nano ZnO coated PU and 0.2% nano ZnO coated PU replicated thrice. On average, SGM increased basmati rice grain yield by 13.2 and 12.3% during 2020 and 2021, respectively compared to fallow. Integrated application of zinc with urea significantly ( p  < 0.05) increased the grain yield of basmati rice by 9.56% and by 10.5% relative to urea without zinc and by 33.7 and 33.8% than the sole application of 5 kg Zn ha −1 through ZnO, respectively during 2020 and 2021. On average, SGM boosted Zn, Cu, Mn, and Fe content in milled rice by 25, 22.38, 20.0, and 18.85% during 2020 and 23.75, 21.4, 19.6, and 13.3% during 2021, respectively compared to fallow. Relative to sole urea application, zinc, and urea together improved the Zn and Fe content in milled rice by 2.99 mg kg −1 and 2.62 mg kg –1, respectively during the first year and by 2.83 mg kg −1 and 2.6 mg kg −1 , respectively during the second year of study. The highest protein content in basmati rice grain was observed when it was grown after Sesbania aculeata residue incorporated plot during both the years and it decreased in the order: Sesbania aculeata  >  Vigna unguiculata  > summer fallow. Our findings revealed that with the application of 1% bulk ZnO coated PU with Sesbania ; the yield response, micronutrient acquisition, and protein accumulation in milled rice was higher than in other plant fertilization methods. However, in plots treated with Sesbania , along with 0.2% nano ZnO-coated PU exhibited statistically equivalent yield and micronutrient loading in edible tissues. Hence, this study unveils the critical role of nano ZnO-coated urea and summer green manuring in elevating micronutrient and protein bioavailability in basmati rice and concurrently reducing Zn dose by 20%, making it a profitable option for farmers.

Agriculture is undergoing a transformation through innovations like nano fertilizers, which offer the potential to enhance productivity and sustainability. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of nano DAP to improve growth, yield attributes, nutrient uptake, and economic viability in wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.) cultivation. A two-year field experiment during the  rabi seasons of (2022–23, 2023-2024) was conducted at the ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India, using a randomized complete block design with ten treatments. These included a control (zero P), 50%, 75%, and 100% of the recommended dose of phosphorus (RDP), with or without nano DAP sprays (2.5 ml and 5 ml L −1 ), replicated three times. Results demonstrated that the application of 100% RDP combined with two foliar sprays of nano DAP significantly increased grain yield by 34.8% and 14.7% in the 2022–2023 and 2023–2024 seasons, respectively, compared to the control. However, in 2022-23, P 50  + nano 2.5  ml L −1 resulted in a 13.7% reduction in yields, while P 50  + nano 5 ml L −1 showed a 7.8% decrease compared to P 100 . In 2023-24, both treatments achieved yields comparable to P 100 . Similarly, P 75  + nano recorded yields on par with P 100 . Additionally, grain phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) uptake, showed substantial increases of 69.9% and 42.2% for P, and 54.2% and 26.7% for N in P 100  across the two seasons, compared to control. Economic analysis revealed higher net returns of US $ 1,022.30 and US $ 1,248.90 ha −1  year −1 in 2022–2023 and 2023–2024, respectively. Reducing the P application to 75% RDP with two foliar sprays of nano DAP (5 ml L −1 ) resulted in wheat yields of 4.25 t ha −1 and 6.04 t ha −1 in 2022–2023 and 2023–2024, respectively, which were statistically comparable to the yields achieved with 100% RDP. This treatment also improved N uptake (84.2, 125.0 kg ha −1 ), P uptake (20.4, 24.2 kg ha −1 ), and net returns (US $ 958.60, US $ 1,197.10 ha −1  year −1 ) during 2022–23 and 2023–24, respectively. Thus, demonstrating its potential as an economically viable and environmentally sustainable alternative to conventional P 100 application.

The performance of three selected bacterial strains—PR3, PR7 and PR10 (Providencia sp., Brevundimonas sp., Ochrobacterium sp.) and three cyanobacterial strains CR1, CR2 and CR3 (Anabaena sp., Calothrix sp., Anabaena sp.), and their combinations was evaluated in a pot experiment with rice variety Pusa-1460, comprising 51 treatments along with recommended fertilizer controls. Highest yield enhancement of 19.02% was recorded in T12 (CR2), over control, while significant enhancement in nitrogen fixing potential was recorded in treatments involving combination of bacterial-cyanobacterial strains—T37 (PR3 + CR1 + CR3) and T21 (PR7 + CR1). Organic carbon was significantly increased in all microbe-inoculated treatments, which could be correlated with microbial biomass carbon values and activities of all the enzymes tested in our study. Also, panicle weight and plant biomass were highly correlated with soil microbial carbon. Comparative evaluation revealed the superior performance of strains CR2, CR1 (both Anabaena sp.) and PR10 (Ochrobacterium sp.) in increasing the growth and grain yield of rice and improving soil health, besides N (nitrogen) savings of 40–80 kg ha−1. The study for the first time illustrated the positive effects of co-inoculation of bacterial and cyanobacterial strains for integrated nutrient management of rice crop.

Harnessing the benefits of plant–microbe interactions towards better nutrient mobilization and plant growth is an important challenge for agriculturists globally. In our investigation, the focus was towards analyzing the soil–plant–environment interactions of cyanobacteria-based formulations ( Anabaena – Nostoc consortium, BF1–4 and Anabaena – Trichoderma biofilm, An–Tr) as inoculants for ten maize genotypes (V1–V10). Field experimentation using seeds treated with the formulations illustrated a significant increase of 1.3- to 3.8-fold in C–N mobilizing enzyme activities in plants, along with more than five- to six-fold higher values of nitrogen fixation in rhizosphere soil samples. An increase of 22–30% in soil available nitrogen was also observed at flag leaf stage, and 13–16% higher values were also recorded in terms of cob yield of V6 with An-Tr biofilm inoculation. Savings of 30 kg N ha −1  season −1 was indicative of the reduced environmental pollution, due to the use of microbial options. The use of cyanobacterial formulations also enhanced the economic, environmental and energy use efficiency. This was reflected as 37–41% reduced costs lowered GHG emission by 58–68 CO 2 equivalents and input energy requirement by 3651–4296 MJ, over the uninoculated control, on hectare basis. This investigation highlights the superior performance of these formulations, not only in terms of efficient C–N mobilization in maize, but also making maize cultivation a more profitable enterprise. Such interactions can be explored as resource-conserving options, for future evaluation across ecologies and locations, particularly in the global climate change scenario. Graphic abstract

During the summer and rainy seasons (April-October) of 2020 and 2021, two consecutive field experiments were conducted at the research farm of the ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India. In this study, we examined the effects of summer green manuring crops (GM) and a variety of zinc fertilizers (ZnF) on Basmati rice ( Oryza sativa L.) growth, physiological development, yield response, zinc nutrition and economic returns. A combination of GM residues and nano zinc fertilization helped significantly enhancing Basmati rice’s growth and its physiological development. Following the incorporation of Sesbania aculeata (Sesbania), successive Basmati rice physiological parameters were significantly improved, as well as grain, straw, biological yields, harvest index and economic returns. The highest Zn content of 15.1 mg kg -1 and the lowest of 11.8 mg kg -1 in milled rice grain were recorded in Sesbania green manuring (G2) and control i.e., in the fallow (G1), respectively. Coating onto urea with 0.2% nano zinc oxide (NZnCU) was observed to be more effective than other zinc sources in terms of growth parameters, yield attributes, zinc nutrition, grain and straw yields for succeeding Basmati rice crop; however, the effects were comparable to those of bulk zinc oxide-coated urea (BZnCU) of 1%. The highest Zn content of 15.1 mg kg -1 was recorded with the application of 1% BZnCU and the lowest of 11.96 mg kg -1 with the soil application of 5 kg Zn ha -1 through bulk ZnO in the milled rice grain. Application of 1% BZnCU led to a 26.25% increase in Zn content of milled rice grain compared to soil application of 5 kg Zn ha -1 through bulk ZnO. As a result, the combination of inclusion of Sesbania aculeata ( Sesbania ) residue and 0.2% NZnCU was identified as the most effective treatment, for Basmati rice growth and physiological development. A combination of nano Zn fertilization in conjunction with the incorporation of green manure can be advocated for better growth, physiological performance, zinc dense grains, and higher profitability of Basmati rice for farmers and consumers.

Identification of cropland suitability is obligatory to adapting to the increased food needs driven by population expansion, environmental contamination, and climate change. Given this, the present study was conducted to assess cereal crops’ suitability in India’s Haryana state by integrating Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and geographic information system (GIS) technique. Multiple factors were considered for this study, such as rainfall, temperature, soil texture, drainage density, pH, organic carbon, electrical conductivity, and slope. The AHP technique was utilized to decide the weights of each individual parameter using experts’ opinions. The crop-suitability model was developed using the model builder module in ArcGIS 10.8, and each input parameter was reclassified as per the optimum crop-growth requirement and overlaid utilizing the reclassify tool and weighted overlay analysis. The crop suitability classes were estimated as highly suitable, S1 (6%); moderately suitable, S2 (71%); and marginally suitable, S3 (23%) for the calculated arable land for the wheat crop. Similarly, the crop suitability class of rice S2 (28%); S3 (72%), for sorghum S1 (28%); S2 (71%); S3 (1%), for maize S2 (85%); S3 (15%) and for pearl millet S1 (60%); S2 (40%) were also estimated. The study has observed that, as per the soil physico-chemical characteristics and climate, the area is moderately fertile. Therefore, agricultural production can be improved by cultivating the crop in highly and moderately suitable zones. Diversification of marginally suitable regions for crops other than that for which it is not suitable can be taken up, which will also ensure the income security of marginal farmers.

Zinc deficiency is prevalent worldwide and is a barrier in achieving yield targets in crops. It is also now recognized as a leading risk factor for disease in humans in developing countries. Generally, soil application of 5-17 kg Zn ha⁻¹ y⁻¹ (25-85 kg zinc sulphate heptahydrate ha⁻¹ y⁻¹) or more is recommended for rice. However, in the developing rice-growing countries of Asia, zinc sulphate of desired quality is not readily available and is also quite expensive, and the farmers generally fail to apply Zn, resulting in crop yield loss in rice. Availability of zinc-enriched urea (ZEU) makes possible not only the availability of quality zinc, but also assures its application. Therefore, field experiments were conducted for two consecutive years at the research farm of Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India, during rainy (rice) and winter (wheat) seasons of 2004-2006 on a sandy clay-loam soil to study the effect of various concentrations of zinc enrichment of urea on productivity, zinc concentrations, its uptake and use indices of aromatic rice-wheat cropping system. Eight treatments comprising prilled urea (PU) and 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0 and 3.5% zinc-enriched urea, replicated three times, were compared in a randomized block design. The enrichment of PU was done through zinc oxide containing 80% zinc. The results of this study revealed that the zinc-enriched urea (ZEU) had a significant effect on growth, yield attributes and yields of aromatic rice. Highest values for all these attributes and yields were recorded at the highest enrichment (3.5%) of the PU with zinc. The highest zinc concentration and uptake in rice grain and straw were also significantly higher with the highest level (3.5%) of zinc enrichment. The highest total zinc uptake recorded was 1,168 and 1,353 g ha⁻¹, during 2004 and 2005, respectively, with 3.5% ZEU. However, a major increase in grain yield of rice was recorded up to 1.0% zinc enrichment. The residual effect of zinc-enriched urea on succeeding wheat yield and zinc uptake was significant only at a higher level of zinc-enriched urea and only in the second year of study. Overall, 1.0% zinc-enriched urea recorded significantly higher productivity and zinc uptake over PU in the rice-wheat cropping system and is recommended for Delhi and adjoining areas. The recommendation is also made keeping in view the fact that with increased levels of zinc enrichment of urea, the partial factor productivity, agronomic efficiency, apparent recovery and physiological efficiency of applied zinc in a rice-wheat system decreased significantly. Considering all the economic parameters (benefit, benefit:cost ratio, IR gained IR⁻¹ invested in zinc), 1.0% ZEU proved the most economic source for aromatic rice-wheat cropping system and therefore is recommended for rice-wheat cropping system in Delhi and adjoining areas of north India.