Nutrient Use Efficiency of Hybrid Sunflower in Response to Sulphur and Zinc Fertilization of Tambirabarani Tract

In India, oil seed production is not available to meet domestic requirements. India has been facing a recurring shortage of edible oils for many years. Presently, about 23% of sunflower oil being consumed in India has to be imported. To improve our country sunflower production by proper fertilizer management and used sunflower hybrids in the production. This research was conducted to study the yield, seed quality and economics of hybrid sunflower variety CO 2 on alfisol of tambirabarani tract using a randomized complete block design replicated thrice with eight treatments in 2016-17. The experiment consisted of eight treatments viz. T1-Control, T2-60: 90: 60 kg of NPK ha-1 + S[at]25 kg ha-1 + ZnSO4[at]25 kg ha-1, T3-60: 90: 60 kg of NPK ha-1+ S[at]12.5 kg ha-1 + ZnSO4[at]0.5 % foliar spray, T4-60: 90: 60 kg of NPK ha-1 + S[at]25 kg ha-1 + ZnSO4[at]0.5 % foliar spray, T5-60: 90: 60 kg of NPK ha-1+ S[at]37.5 kg ha-1 + ZnSO4[at]0.5 % foliar spray, T6-60: 90: 60 kg of NPK ha-1+ ZnSO4[at]12.5 kg ha-1 + S[at]0.2 % foliar spray, T7-60: 90: 60 kg of NPK ha-1+ ZnSO4[at]25 kg ha-1 + S[at]0.2 % foliar spray and T8-60: 90: 60 kg of NPK ha-1+ ZnSO4[at]37.5 kg ha-1 + S[at]0.2 % foliar spray. Application of RDF as 60: 90: 60 kg of NPK ha-1+ S[at]25 kg ha-1 + ZnSO4[at]25 kg ha-1 (T2) produced significantly seed yield (2101 kg ha-1) and maximum nutrient use efficiency. Hence, the above study concluded that application of recommended dose of fertilizer as 60: 90: 60 kg of NPK ha-1 with S[at]25 kg ha-1 + ZnSO4[at]25 kg ha-1 is found to be the best for getting optimum yield of sunflower in an Alfisol of Tambiraparani tract.