Low uptake efficiency, difficulty and the cost involved are major obstacles limiting micronutrients application through soil, therefore, interest exists for use of micronutrient treatment techniques such as micronutrient seed priming for biofortification of crops with micronutrients. A combination of in vitro, nursery and in field trials were conducted in 2021 to examine the influence of seed priming with different dosages (0–5%) of Zn for two soaking durations (24 and 48 h) on seedling growth and performance, grain Zn uptake, yield-related components and grain yield of two rice cultivars-Anbarbou and Shamshiri. Seed zinc concentration of two rice cultivar increased as the concentration of the priming solution increased. Natural zinc contents of two rice cultivars were significantly increased as the concentration of the priming solution increased, especially at the priming duration of 48 h. Nursery seedlings grown from primed seeds with 5% ZnSO4 at the priming duration of 48 h gave higher fresh and dry matter accumulation in shoots. The solutions used in the field trial increased the concentration of Zn in seeds from 10.5 to 29.6 µg g−1. Priming seed resulted in a significant increase in grain yield of 8.46%. Priming resulted in better yield-related parameters of panicle number plant−1 (20%), seed number panicle−1 (13.8%) and grain weight (9.1%). Further research also revealed that priming seed with zinc led the succinate dehydrogenase activity of hyphae of Serendipita indica, in symbiotic association with rice seedling roots, to increase.
