Zinc, a seminal micronutrient for crops and humans, performs an essential function in growth and development. Cereals are a leading source of staple food supply but are short in grain Zn content. Zinc biofortification of cereals and other food crops is a substantial impediment due to the alkaline/basic nature of soil. Most of the soil under cultivation in the world has low Zn plant availability due to which Zn-biofortified genotypes are not able to perform at their potential. To combat this challenge, various agronomic and microbial approaches have been adopted to enhance the soil Zn-availability and Zn-contents in edible plant parts. This chapter explores different techniques, zinc sources, their efficacy in zinc amelioration, and their impact on the environment and economics. A combination of fertilizer application and foliar spray has proven essential and sustainable for the improvement of zinc grain percentage. Zn-application enhances photosynthetic activity, Zn re-translocation into seeds, and increases the contents of protein, oil, and starch. In addition to this, Zn-biofortification may also regulate either positively or negatively the concentration of other micronutrients, especially Fe, Cu, Mg, P, etc., and improve soil health and economic returns. Plant growth-promoting microorganisms decompose and mineralize organic matter and metamorphose inorganic matter to improve the Zn-availability in soil, mobilization in crop plant parts, and bioavailability in food grains. Moreover, Zn also preserves the soil environment by promoting the growth of beneficial bacteria. Considering adverse soil conditions, and in the scenario of climate change, an integrated approach of combining genetic and agronomic biofortification strategies would be helpful.

A part of the big three cereal crops in the world, wheat has become a major constituent of the everyday food chain and is grown at a massive scale to meet global demands. This makes it an important crop from an economic as well as food security perspective. Selection of high-quality cultivars and consistent trait enhancement for such cultivars is crucial, and in light of new challenges from climate change, this has become an absolute necessity of time. In this regard, we conducted a detailed qualitative and quantitative trait analysis for multiple commercially viable varieties of wheat, and corresponding results were subjected to a series of critical statistical analyses. Final results have shown that five cultivars including Uqaab-2000, Faisalabad- 85, Anmol-19, NARC-2009, and Pirsabak-2004 depicts higher levels of various essential qualitative and quantitative traits (including Starch content, grain weight, RS content, Protein content, etc.) and are most viable varieties for further growth and trait enhancements to meet regional and global food challenges.

Genetic transformation plays a vital role in enhancing crop performance under changing climatic conditions. However, soybean (Glycine max L.) remains a transformation-recalcitrant species, with regeneration efficiency strongly influenced by genotype, explant type, and in vitro culture conditions. In this study, four soybean genotypes: Faisal Soybean, AARI Soybean, Rawal-I, and Williams-82 were evaluated for their regeneration potential via direct organogenesis using half-split cotyledonary explants. Explants were cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with varying concentrations of benzyl amino purine (BAP) and naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) for shoot induction, and indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) and indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) for root induction. Among the tested genotypes, Faisal Soybean exhibited the highest regeneration efficiency, with 40.13% shoot induction and 26.83% root induction, followed by AARI Soybean. The optimal shoot induction was achieved on MS medium containing 2.0 mg·L−1 BAP + 0.1 mg·L−1 NAA, while the highest root induction was observed on medium with 0.5 mg·L−1 IBA + 1.2 mg·L−1 IAA. In contrast, Rawal-I showed the lowest regeneration response across all stages. These findings highlight significant genotype-dependent variation in regeneration potential, reinforcing the importance of selecting responsive cultivars for transformation. The optimized protocol developed in this study provides a reliable foundation for future genetic transformation and crop improvement efforts in soybean.