HarvestZinc Project

The HarvestZinc Fertilizer Project (www.harvestzinc.org) has been developed under HarvestPlus Program (www.harvestplus.org) and lasted for 14 years, from 2008 to 2022 with the aim to increase micronutrient concentrations of selected food crops in 14 countries by using fertilizer strategy (i.e., agronomic biofortification).

The project  produced a number of novel results and insights of practical relevance and importance. The results reveal the feasibility of the fertilizer strategy and its vast potential in increasing zinc (Zn), iodine (I) and selenium (Se) concentrations of food crops, particularly in cereal crops.

The results also demonstrated that the fertilizer and breeding approaches are complementary and synergistic. Exploiting synergies from combining genetic and agronomic approaches has high potential to boost further grain concentrations to desired levels.

For further detail see following papers:

Cakmak, I. 2008: Enrichment of cereal grains with zinc: Agronomic or genetic biofortification? Plant and Soil, 302: 1-17.

Bouis, H. and Saltzman A. 2017: Improving nutrition through biofortification: A review of evidence from HarvestPlus, 2003 through 2016. Global Food Sec. Agric. Policy Econ. Environ. 12: 49-58.

Cakmak I and Kutman B. 2018: Agronomic biofortification of cereals with zinc: a review. European J. Soil Sci. 69: 172-180

Zou C, Du Y, Rashid A,Ram H, Savasli E, Pieterse PJ, Ortiz-Monasterio I, Yazici A, Kaur C, Mahmood K, Singh S, Le Roux MR, Kuang W, Onder O, Kalayci M and Cakmak I. 2019: Simultaneous biofortification of wheat with zinc, iodine, selenium, and iron through foliar treatment of a micronutrient cocktail in six countries. J. Agric Food Chem. 67: 8096-8106.

Cakmak I, Marzorati M, Van den Abbeele P, Hora K, Holwerda HT, Yazici MA, Savasli E, Neri J and Du Laing G. 2020: Fate and bioaccessibility of iodine in food prepared from agronomically biofortified wheat and rice and impact of cofertilization with zinc and selenium. J Agric. Food Chem. 68: 1525-1535  

Prom-u-thai, C., Rashid, A., Ram, H., Zou, C., Guilherme, L.R.G., Corguinha, A.P.B., Guo, S., Kaur, C., Naeem, A., Yamuangmorn, S., Ashraf, M.Y., Sohu, V.S., Zhang. Y., Martins, F.A.D., Jumrus, S., Tutus, Y., Yazici, M.A., Cakmak, I. (2020): Simultaneous biofortification of rice with zinc, Iodine, iron and selenium through foliar treatment of a micronutrient cocktail in five countries. Front. Plant Sci. 11, 15–16