Abstract
The world population is expanding rapidly and will likely be 10 billion by the year 2050. Limited availability of
additional arable land and water resources, and the declining trend in crop yields globally make food security a
major challenge in the 21st century. According to the projections, food production on presently used land must be
doubled in the next two decades to meet food demand of the growing world population. To achieve the required
massive increase in food production, large enhancements in application of fertilizers and improvements of soil
fertility are indispensable approaches. Presently, in many developing countries, poor soil fertility, low levels of
available mineral nutrients in soil, improper nutrient management, along with the lack of plant genotypes having
high tolerance to nutrient deficiencies or toxicities are major constraints contributing to food insecurity, malnutrition
(i.e., micronutrient deficiencies) and ecosystem degradation. Plant nutrition research provides invaluable
information highly useful in elimination of these constraints, and thus, sustaining food security and well-being
of humans without harming the environment. The fact that at least 60% of cultivated soils have growth-limiting
problems with mineral-nutrient deficiencies and toxicities, and about 50% of the world population suffers from
micronutrient deficiencies make plant nutrition research a major promising area in meeting the global demand for
sufficient food production with enhanced nutritional value in this millennium. Integration of plant nutrition research
with plant genetics and molecular biology is indispensable in developing plant genotypes with high genetic ability
to adapt to nutrient deficient and toxic soil conditions and to allocate more micronutrients into edible plant products
such as cereal grains.