What are the Effects on Plant Yields? Will Farmers Adopt Such Varieties?
Results from research at Waite and elsewhere has shown that where the soil is deficient in a particular micronutrient, seeds containing more of that nutrient have better germination, better seedling vigor and/or more resistance to infection during the vulnerable seedling stage (Pearson and Rengel, 1995; McCay et al., 1995). Since these crop establishment benefits can result in higher crop yield, the specific breeding goals for human and plant nutrition largely coincide. A soil is said to be “deficient” in a nutrient when the addition of a fertilizer containing that nutrient produces better growth. But the amount of the mineral micronutrient that is added to the soil to improve growth is usually small compared to the total amount of that mineral found in the soil. Because the trace mineral is chemically bound to other elements in the soil, the major part of the trace mineral is “unavailable” to plants. An alternative view, therefore, is that instead of soil deficiency there is a genetic
