*4.3. Grain Yield, Protein Yield and Micronutrient Uptake*

The calculations of nutritional status of staple crops are essential considering the shifting of focus of India from food security to nutritional security [57,58]. Protein energy malnutrition (PEM) ranks first among the major nutrition-related disorders in India [21]. As both rice and wheat are the staple crops catering the protein need of the majority of the population (especially BLP where PEM is a severe problem), the calculation of their protein yield will be more focused than just the calculation of yield. In our experiment, the variation in protein yield was accounted due to the variation in grain yield of rice and wheat and the factor used for calculation converting nitrogen content to protein. The yield variations in rice recorded due to better crop establishments leading to superior growth and yield attributes due to transplanting in both PTR and SRI and less weed menace due to puddling than ARS. The variation in yields response by different CEMs was reported by [59,60], while variation in weed dynamics across CEMs [61] and weed problem in aerobic rice [62] was also reported. This significantly higher yield variation across CEMs nullified the effect of factor used for calculation of protein yield which is higher in rice (5.95) than wheat (5.70).

Another health-related risk is micronutrient deficiency also called as hidden hunger [63]. The need and significant of micronutrient application for enhancing yield [20] as well as increasing grain micronutrient concentration and uptake was reported [64], while their uptake variation across the CEMs with use of different microbial inoculations is meagre and studied in this investigation. The uptake of all studied micronutrients was higher in wheat. Along with uptake, concentration dilution by dry matter production and presence of anti-nutritional factors (phytate) [65] are the other factors deciding the nutritional status of food grains. The higher micronutrient uptake in PTR and SRI signifies the role of puddling in enhancing the uptake of micronutrients [66], while significantly higher micronutrient uptake in ZTW is the indication of the superior performance of ZTW arose due to residual effect of previous season rice (ARS) and better root growth leading higher forage area due to less physical constraints for root growth (non-puddled ARS). The uptake of Zn and Fe in both rice and wheat was significantly affected by application of microbial inoculations, RDN and Zn fertilization. This indicates ability of above-mentioned factors in amending the micronutrient uptake in rice. The variation in micronutrient uptake across the CEMs was explained by changes in hydrological regimes across CEMs in rice and residual effect as well as soil physical constraints in wheat.
