Abstract — Green revolution had led to the increased consumption of chemical fertilizers which resulted in the higher productivity and caused environmental hazards. Nutrient use efficiency of conventional fertilizers is very low. To overcome all these drawbacks in a better way, nanotechnology can be a ray of hope. Nano fertilizer is an important tool in agriculture to improve crop growth, yield and quality parameters with increased nutrient use efficiency. Careful and judicious use of nanotechnology can ensure help in maximizing plant productivity especially in new reclaimed salt affected sandy soil which usually suffer from abiotic stress (drought and salinity). Nanoparticles have potential to improve growth and yield of plant under this circumstances. This paper studied the effect of ZnO nanoparticles on Kochia indica grown under saline conditions. To realize the previous tasks, a field trial was conducted at the Model Farm of the National Research Centre, El Tour, South Sinai to test the impact of foliar application with ZnO (20, 40 and 60 ppm) in addition to control treatment on some growth characters, photosynthetic pigments content, crude protein content, crude fiber, ash and some physiological aspects as well as nutrients content of K. indica. The results show that foliar application of ZnO nanoparticle improved growth, pigment content, crude protein, and crude fiber. The best results were obtained under foliar application with 40 ppm ZnO nanoparticle treatment. Thus, this concludes that zinc nanoparticles can improve productivity of K. indica in salt affected soils.
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