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Malnutrition and associated health problems are partly related to minerals and vitamins deficiencies where anemia and stunting are the major diseases affecting nearly half of pregnant women and about 20% children under age of five, respectively in developing countries. Despite the significant progress made in recent decades, prevalence of stunting in Ethiopia remains high (44%, among children) that necessitate the country yet to make significant investment in nutrition and health. Strategies designed to overcome the problem range from micronutrient rich foods supplement to complementing foods with vegetables and fruits. However, such strategies are expensive as well as not sustainable to reach the poor households of developing countries. The persistence of the problem calls for agriculture based alternative solutions such as agronomic biofortification and micronutrients biofortification through plant breeding. Utilization of crop wild relatives, local landraces and old cultivars are proved to contain sufficient grain micronutrients and their utilization in breeding programs can solve the deficiency of micronutrients such as zinc and iron. Similarly, agronomic biofortification could improve grain Zn and Fe contents in several folds. Application methods and crop developmental stages during which fortification applied significantly determine the efficiency of fortification. Foliar application at heading and milking stages could accumulate very high Zn and Fe in cereal grains. The synergistic effect of genetic and agronomic fortification could also be utilized to produce Zn and Fe rich food crops. Hence, linking agriculture with nutrition and health could offer equitable, effective, sustainable and cheap solutions to micronutrients malnutrition and their deficiency related health problems.

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A field experiment was carried out in the 2020–2021 growing season, aiming at investigating the abiotic stress tolerance of oat (Avena sativa L.) with silicon and sulphur foliar fertilization treatments and monitoring the effect of treatments on the physiology, production and stress tolerance of winter oat varieties. In the Hungarian national list of varieties, six winter oat varieties were registered in 2020, and all of the registered varieties were sown in a small plot field experiment in Debrecen, Hungary. The drought tolerance of the oat could be tested, because June was very dry in 2021; the rainfall that month totaled 6 mm only despite a 30-year average of 66.5 mm, and the average temperature for the month was 3.2 °C higher than the 30-year average. Foliar application of silicon and sulphur fertilizers caused differences in the photosynthesis rate, total conductance to CO2, transpiration, water use efficiency, leaf area, chlorophyll content, carotenoid content, thousand kernel weight (TKW) and yield of winter oat. The application of silicon significantly increased the photosynthesis rate (16.8–149.3%), transpiration (5.4–5.6%), air–leaf temperature difference (16.2–43.2%), chlorophyll (1.0%) and carotenoid (2.5%) content. The yield increased by 10.2% (Si) and 8.0% (Si plus S), and the TKW by 3.3% (Si) and 5.0% (Si plus S), compared to the control plots. The plants in the control plots assimilated less CO2 while transpiring 1 m3 water more than in the Si, S or Si plus S fertilized plots. The effect of the silicon varied from 9.0 to 195.4% in water use efficiency (WUE) in the three development stages (BBCH52, BBCH65 and BBCH77). A lower leaf area index was measured in the foliar fertilized plots; even so, the yield was higher, compared to that from the control plots. Great variation was found in response to the foliar Si and S fertilization among winter oat varieties—in WUE, 2.0–43.1%; in total conductance to CO2, 4.9–37.3%; in leaf area, 1.6–34.1%. Despite the droughty weather of June, the winter oat varieties produced a high yield. The highest yield was in ‘GK Arany’ (7015.7 kg ha−1), which was 23.8% more than the lowest yield (‘Mv Kincsem’, 5665.6 kg ha −1). In the average of the treatments, the TKW increased from 23.9 to 33.9 g (41.8%). ‘Mv Hópehely’ had the highest TKW. Our results provide information about the abiotic stress tolerance of winter oat, which, besides being a good model plant because of its drought resistance, is an important human food and animal feed.

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Improvement of durum wheat grain quality through agronomic biofortification becomes a priority research area and an effective route to combat malnutrition. An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of micronutrient application to different varieties of durum wheat and seeding rate on final harvest grain quality under different growing locations. The treatments were arranged in split-split plot design where the varieties were assigned in the main plot, micronutrients into the subplots, and seeding rate into the sub-subplots. Each variety was sown at four levels of seeding rates and treated with ZnSO₄ and FeSO4 applied foliarly, both at a rate of 25 Kg ha−1 during flowering. Micronutrients were applied in the form of ZnSO₄ 7H2O and FeSO₄ 7H2O. The study confirmed that application of 25 Kg ha−1 ZnSO₄-containing fertilizer has increased mineral content from 33.04 mg Kg−1 to 56.73 mg kg−1. The tested durum wheat varieties significantly differ in their capacity to accumulate grain Zn and Fe concentrations. Higher amount of Zn (20 mg kg−1) and Fe (10 mg kg−1) were accumulated by the landrace 208304 than by Asassa, an improved commercial variety. Increasing seeding rate from 100–175 Kg ha−1 has reduced grain Zn and Fe concentrations. Grain mineral concentration was significantly lower at the Mekelle location than at the Melfa location. It can be concluded that foliar application of ZnSO₄ and FeSO4 to the landrace, acc.208304, combined with 125 Kg seeds ha−1 can produce better Zn and Fe denser durum wheat grain. This will help to combat the hidden hunger, especially in resource poor countries, where fortified foods are limited in access and unaffordable by small-scale farmers.

In order to investigate the abiotic stress (drought) tolerance of oat (Avena sativa L.) with silicon and sulphur foliar fertilisation treatments, and monitor the effect of the treatments on the physiology, production, stress tolerance, plant, and grain quality of winter oat varieties, a field experiment was conducted in the growing season of 2020–2021. As a continuation of our article, published in another Special Issue of Plants, in this publication we evaluate the effect of silicon and sulphur treatments on the quality of winter oats. The whole grain sulphur content was significantly different between varieties. The foliar fertiliser treatments caused greater differences in both the carbon and nitrogen, and sulphur contents in the green plant samples, compared to the differences measured in the grain. Foliar treatments had a significant effect on the sulphur content of both plant samples and grains. Significant differences in the Al, Ba, Ca, Cu, Fe, K, Mn, Mo, Na, Ni, P, Pb, Sr, and Zn contents of oat grains were measured, both between treatments and between varieties. Winter oat varieties did not respond equally to the foliar fertiliser treatments in terms of either macronutrient or micronutrient content. When P, K, Ca, Mg, and S were summarised, the highest values were in the control plots. Significant differences in protein content were identified between winter oat varieties in response to the treatments, but the varieties did not respond in the same way to different foliar fertiliser treatments. Based on our results, we recommend the use of foliar fertilisation in oats in drought-prone areas.