Foliar Zinc Application to Wheat May Lessen the Zinc Deficiency Burden in Rural Quzhou, China

Abstract

Zinc (Zn) malnutrition is a common health problem, especially in developing countries. The human health and economic benefits of the replacement of conventional flour with Zn-biofortified wheat flour in rural household diets were assessed. One hundred forty-five wheat flour samples were collected from rural households in Quzhou County. Then, field experiments were conducted on wheat at two Zn levels (0 and 0.4% ZnSO4 · 7H2O foliar application) under 16 diverse agricultural practices in Quzhou County. Foliar Zn application significantly increased the Zn concentration and bioavailability in wheat grain and flour. If rural households consumed Zn-biofortified flour instead of self-cultivated flour or flour purchased from supermarkets, 257–769 or 280–838, 0.46–1.36 million or 0.50–1.49 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) lost, respectively, could be saved in Quzhou County and China. Amounts of 2.3–12.0 million and 5.5–22.6 billion RMB could be obtained via Zn-biofortified flour in Quzhou County and China, respectively. The current study indicates that Zn-biofortified flour via foliar Zn application is a win-win strategy to maintain the yield and combat human Zn deficiency in rural households in China. More health and economic benefits could be obtained in rural household dependent on wheat flour purchased from supermarkets than in those dependent on self-cultivated wheat flour.

Preventing and Controlling Zinc Deficiency Across the Life Course: A Call to Action

“…To quantify the burden of health disparity attributable to zinc deficiency, the disability-adjusted life year (DALY) approach is useful to estimate the loss of life years due to disability or death. For example, a recent analysis considering the prevalence of inadequate zinc intake and disability or death due to stunting, diarrhea, and pneumonia estimated that 3.7 million DALYs were lost in China due to zinc deficiency in infants and children [ 48 ]. These estimates may underestimate the true burden; due to the broad functional importance of zinc throughout the life course, it is likely that DALYs attributed to other risk factors are also consequent—at least in part—to zinc deficiency.…”

Formulation of zinc foliar sprays for wheat grain biofortification: a review of current applications and future perspectives

“…Efforts should be made to use biodegradable products for foliar spray studies. Traditional petrol-based adjuvants such as Tween have been used widely for their benefits in improving leaf surface contact are ( Ning et al., 2021 ; Yu et al., 2021 ; González-Caballo et al., 2022 ; Wang et al., 2023 ). However, more sustainable, and greener surfactants should be considered for further testing in biofortification trials.…”

Zinc Fortification: Current Trends and Strategies

“…Modeling zinc absorption is a useful approach towards the optimization of a fortification strategy for a particular food [ 35 , 36 , 37 ]. For example, modeling enabled the evaluation of wheat varieties for zinc biofortification in Pakistan [ 35 ].…”

“…Depending on the zinc and phytate content of each variety, it was estimated that 1.5 to 2.2 mg of zinc would be absorbed from a typical daily intake of 300 g of wheat. A similar modeling approach was used to optimize the amount of zinc added to the soil for agronomic fortification of wheat [ 36 ], and the foliar application of zinc to wheat [ 37 ].…”