Sunflower is an important oilseed crop that contributes 14% of total oilseed production. It has a high seed multiplication ratio and is drought tolerant, making it suitable for dryland farming. Sunflower oil contains high levels of unsaturated fatty acids and vitamin E, and is used for cooking, margarine, and industrial applications. India is a major producer of sunflower, with the largest areas located in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana.

1. SUN FLOWER
SCIENTIFIC NAME : HELIANTHUS ANNUS
FAMILY: ASTERACEAE

6.  It is an important oilseed crop contributes 14% of the total oilseed production from
nine major oil seed crops.
 The genus Helianthus (Helio=Sun, anthus= flower).
 Sunflower is known as a “suryajmuki” as it is grown for ornamental purpose.
 It is the third most important oilseed crop of world after soybean, Rape seed&
Mustard in India .
 The helio tropic movement is of great importance.

7. THE AREA AND PRODUCTION OF SUNFLOWER CROP SIGNIFICANTLY
INCREASED DUE TO FOLLOWING MERITS OF THE CROPS.
 1. Short duration (90-100 days) as it is fit well in multiple and intercropping systems.
 2. Photo insensitivity of crop enables its cultivation in all seasons i.e kharif, rabi and
summer
 3. Wide adaptability: it comes well up in any type of soils.
 4. Drought and saline tolerant: suitable for the best component crop in dry land farming.
 5. High productivity per unit area per unit time with respect to yield of oil.
 6. High seed multiplication ratio (1:80) with low seed rate requirement.

8.  7. It is the best substitute for groundnut crop in contingency crop planning.
 8. Due to cross pollination nature, there is a great scope for evolution of high yielding
composites and hybrids.
 9. Good quality oil with high level of poly unsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) content i.e
linoleic and oleic acids. Llinolenic acid is absent.
 10. Availability of good quality of hybrid seeds and varieties.
 11. It is the best catch crop when the land is left otherwise fallow between two
seasons.

9. USES/ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE
 1. The oil content varies from 48-53% and it is premium oil with pale yellow in colour
used for cooking and margarine.
 2. Sunflower is a rich source of linoliec acid (64%) which helps in reducing the
cholesterol deposition in the coronary arteries of the heart. All most of 90% fat is good
for human.
 3. Sunflower oil has high oxidative stability and it is more useful as frying oil.
 4. Sunflower oil is used as industrial feed stock for manufacturing cosmetics, soaps and
pharmaceuticals.
 5. Oil contains high level of alpha tocopherol, a form of vit. E.

10.  6. Oil cake contains 40-50% high quality protein and it is ideally suited for poultry
and livestock.
 7. The roasted kernels are used as food for human beings.
 8. Sunflower is grown as green manure, fodder crop.
 9. The bast fibre of the stem is source for making rough quality paper.
 10. Recently sunflower oil is recognised as an alternative source for diesel engines
with octane rating of 37 and it is rated as number 2 diesel oil.

13. ORIGIN: SOUTHERN USA (PERU) & MEXICO
 AREA AND DISTRIBUTION:
 PLACE AREA PRODUCTION PRODUCTIVITY
 1. India 0.49 M.ha 0.30 M.tonnes 609 kg/ha
 2. TS. 12 Thousand.ha 13 Thousand.tonnes 1154 kg/ha.
 In TS and AP, Kurnool, Ananthapur, Mahaboobnagar, Medak, Nalgonda and
Karimnagar are the major sunflower growing districts.
 AICRP on sunflower - Bangalore.
 ARS on sunflower – Rajendranagar
 RARS on sunflower – Nandyal.

20. CLIMATE:-
 Basically sunflower is a temperate oil seed crop but it is adapted to tropical and subtropical climate.
 The crop requires a cool climate during germination seedling growth and warm weather from seedling
to flowering. Warm and sunny days during flowering to maturity are most favourable.
 Minimum temperature for germination is 8-10o c but it can germinate even up to 400c.
 Night temperature of 18-200 and day temp. of 24-260c are ideal for growth, yield and higher oil
content.
 The growing degree days for sunflower have ranged from 1042 to 1300 with base temperature of 100c.
Lenoleic levels decreases at higher temperature.

21.  The crop is photo insensitive as it flowers at wide range of photoperiods. Optimum day length for better
yield should be >12 to 14 hours.
 High humidity accompanied with cloudy weather and rainfall at the time of flowering results in poor
seed set.
 Fairly drought tolerant with deep root system and comes up in areas receiving minimum rainfall of 500-
700mm upto an altitude of 2500 MSL.
 Latitudinal effect was more significant. Generally it is grown between 400 S to 550 N latitudes but most
of the production is concentrated between 200S to 500N latitude.
 Sunflower grown in Northern USA/Canada has higher linoleic acid (poly unsaturated) due low
temperature. On contrary, sunflower grown in southern USA had high percentage of oleic acid due to
higher temperature.

23. SOILS:-
 Sunflower can be grown on wide range of soils but it does best in medium black to
black soils with high moisture retention capacity.
 Sunflower does not with stand water logging.
 Good Drainage is preferable for cultivation of crop.
 Yield and quality is drastically reduced when soil salinity reaches 10 to 12 ds/m.
 Optimum soil pH for sunflower in 6.5 to 8.5.

25. FIELD PREPARATION:
 Sunflower requires a well pulverised seed
bed for better germination and growth.
One/two ploughings with soil turning plough
(or) M B plough followed by 2-3 harrowings
and planking are sufficient to bring desired
soil tilth.

26. SEEDS AND SOWING:
 For quick germination, under rainfed condition the seed should be soaked in fresh
water for about 14 hours followed by shade drying as sunflower seeds have thick
hulls and imbibes water at slow rate. This process is called seed hardening.
 Sunflower seeds cannot be used as seed, immediately after harvest of crop since seeds
will have dormancy period ranging from 40-50 days. To overcome the dormancy, treat
the seed with ethereal solution for 6 hours.

27. TIME OF SOWING:
 Sunflower being a photo insensitive can be grown irrespective of the season.
 Kharif: Telangana and Rayalaseema: First week of August.
 Coastal: last week of August.
 Rabi (rainfed): First F N of step. - First F N of Oct.
 (Irrigated): November – December.
 Summer: second FN of January - First week of February
 The sowing date of Sunflower can be adjusted in such a way that flowering period does
not coincide with heavy rains because it affects pollination and seed set.

28.  Seed rate:
 Rain fed (kgha -1) Irrigated (kgha -1)
 Varieties: 8-10 6-7
 Hybrids: 5-6 4-5
 Spacing: varieties: 45 × 30 cm
 Hybrids: 60 × 30 cm
 Thinning: Done at 15 DAS to avoid competition and to
maintain single plant/ hill.

29.  Varieties: Maruti, KBSH 44, Pro Sun 09, NDSH – 1, DRSH – 1, MSFH
– 8, APSH – 11, Jwalamukhi, Sungene 85
 Hybrids : TNAUSUF 7, DRSF 108, EC 69874, EC 68413, EC 68414
(Russian), Sunrise selection (Canadian )

30. METHOD OF SOWING:
 Line sowing by seed drill is recommended (or) behind the plough.
Direction of rows preferably North – South as the sunflower head in
phototropic from emergence to flowering. The head and leaves face east
in morning and west in evening. Phototropic nature ceases one day before
the ray florets open.
 Depth of sowing: optimum depth of sowing is 4-5 cm.

31. SEED TREATMENT:
 Seed treatment against seed and soil born diseases is essential for stand
establishment by preventing damage to seeds and seedlings emerging
from soil.
 Seed can be treated with cow urine, Jeevamrutham, Panchagavvya,
Biofertilizers and Amruthapani.

32. MANURES AND FERTILIZERS:
 Rainfed crop: 60: 40: 30 kg N, P2O5 and K2O / ha
 ½ N as basal and ½ N at 30 DAS
 Irrigated crop: 80: 60: 40 kg N, P2O5 and K 2O / ha
 Hybrids responds upto 120 kg N ha-1
 1/3rd N, 1 P 2O5 &1 K2O as basal
 1/3rd N at 30 DAS (Button stage)
 1/3rd N at 55 DAS (flowering stage)

33. FERTILIZER IN ORGANIC FARMING DEPENDS ON THE
FOLLOWING FACTORS:
 On nutrients such as those in the soil.
 On the nutrients from the rain.
 On top of the soil fertilizer.
 Above ground microorganisms (nitrogen fixing bacteria, phosphorus, solubilizer
bacteria, potash solubilizer).
 Depends on the nutrients sprayed on the crops.
 10 tonnes of cattle manure per acre in the last Tillage.
 Spray the liquid Jeevamrutham once every 15 days.
 Spray 3% Panchagavvya at the time of Crop Season twice or thrice.

35. IRRIGATION:
 Sunflower is highly responsive to irrigation. The total water requirement of sunflower is
500- 600 mm.
 It has the ability to withstand short periods of drought as the crop root system extending
up to 2 m depth. One of the reason for preferring sunflower than other crops like
groundnut, sorghum and cotton by the farmers was mainly due to stable yields even
under low rainfall situations and its physiological plasticity i.e. it completes life cycling
tailoring the growth and development to available moisture.
 Under moisture stress conditions, centre portion of head is not filled properly and reduce
the yield significantly.
 The critical stages for moisture in Bud initiation (30 DAS), flower opening (45-50DAS)
(most sensitive to moisture stress) and seed filling (60-75 DAS).

36.  The total number irrigations depend up on seasons i.e. 3-6 for kharif and 4-8 for Rabi.
 Irrigation should be stopped at 20 days before harvesting.
 Sunflower is an excellent indicator plant for identifying the moisture stress.
 Irrigation should be given at 50% DASM at all growth stages except at critical stage
where irrigation is given at 30 DASM.
 Irrigation at IW/ CPE of .5-1.0 is ideal.
 On an average WUE is 50-60 kg seed ha-1cm-1.
 The crop is irrigated by ridge and furrow method.

38. WEED CONTROL:
 Sunflower has slow growth rate during 4-6 WAS hence weed free
condition during the period results in better yields. The crop weed
competition in sunflower is 30-45 DAS i.e. 4-6 WAS. Two inter
cultivations or hand weeding at 15 & 30 DAS is recommended.

40. HARVESTING:
 1. The sunflower crop is ready for harvesting when the moisture content of seed is 20%.
The sunflower head is mature physiologically at 35-40 Days after flowering. It ranges
from 90-100 DAS.
 2. The heads are ripe when back of the head turns yellowish brown and lower leaves
become brown to dark brown.
 3. The harvesting should be done with the help of sickle by removing the head. The
harvested head should be thoroughly sun dried and threshed by beating the centre of the
head with small stick or threshers are also useful. Then winnowing, drying and storage
of seeds.
 4. Delay in harvesting leads to losses due to birds and shattering in the field itself.

41. YIELD:
 Rainfed: 10-15 q/ha
 Irrigated: 20-25 q/ha
 Stalk yield: 10-12 q/ha

42. QUALITY:
 Oil content in kernel is 48-53% and oil content in seed is 28-35%. Protein is 14-19%,
crude fibre – 16-27% .
 Sunflower oil is of premium quality because of its colour,flavour and good nutritional
quality. It contains high levels of linoleic acid whereas saturated fatty acids as
palmitic and steiric acids are of only 15%. Being free of any toxic constituents, it is an
excellent edible oil. Amino acid composition : Sunflower protein contains higher
proportion of essential amino acids. It contains higher methionine. Sunflower protein
is highly digestable and has high biological value.

43. ROUGING AND HAND POLLINATION :-
 All off types which do not confirm to the specific population/ parental line should be
removed before flowering. Pollen shedders are male fertile plants in the A line which
are easily identifiable and sterile plants in the B line should be removed. The plots
should be rouged 2-3 times, preferably before anthesis.
 For obtaining optimum seed set hand pollination is a must. During the flowering
period (2 weeks) pollinate the female heads with pollen from B in the case of A lines
production R lines in the case of hybrid seed production plots on every day between 8
and 11 AM. The male line in both A line and hybrid seed production plots should be
removed as soon as pollination is over.

46. INTER CULTIVATION
 Single Crop
 G.Nut+ SF ౼ 4:2
 Red GRam + SF ౼ 1:2