Performance of Rabi Sunflower to Different Levels of Drip Irrigation Regimes and Fertigation

Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) is an important oilseed crop in India popularly known as "Surakanthi flower" It belongs to the family Asteraceae. The global challenge for the coming decades is to increase the food production with utilization of less water. It can be partially achieved by increasing crop water use efficiency (WUE). Improving the water and nutrient use efficiency has become imperative in present day's Agriculture. A field trial was conducted at Water Technology Center, College farm, College of Agriculture, Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU), Rajendranagar, during rabi season (2018-19) to study the effect of different levels of drip irrigation regimes and fertigation on rabi sunflower. The experiment was carried out under split plot design with three main plot treatments (Irrigation regimes) and four sub-plot treatments (Fertigation levels) and replicated thrice. In irrigation levels sunflower performed better under 1.2 and 1.0 Epan in growth parameters followed by 0.8 Epan. The growth parameters, viz., plant height (214.4 & 214.6 cm), Number of leaves per plant (24.7 & 24.6), LAI (5.63 & 5.27), dry matter accumulation (6041kg ha-1& 5683 kg ha-1), Root depth (17.2 cm & 17.4 cm) and Root volume (91.5 cm3& 101.0 cm3) were found significantly higher at 1.2 Epan and 1.0 Epan. Among fertigation levels, fertigation with120% RD N & K2O reported higer plant height (216.8 cm), Number of leaves per plant (25.5), LAI (5.96), dry matter accumulation (5950kg ha-1),Root depth (18.6 cm) and Root volume (103.2 cm3) followed by 80% RD N & K2O and 60% RD N & K2O. The economic yield reported higher at 1.0 Epan (2082 kg ha-1) and 100% RD N& K2O (2162 kg ha-1) in main and sub plot treatments than other treatments. The benefit-cost ratio was reported highest for Drip irrigation scheduled at 1.0 Epan (2.52) and fertigation with 100% RD N& K2O (2.59) among the Irrigation and fertigation levels and concluded that drip irrigation scheduled at 1.0 Epan with 100% RD N & K2O showed the best results.