Best Management Practices in Sunflower for maximizing yield in dry lands

Abstract

In India, sunflower is cultivated in an area of 0.55 m ha with a production of 0.42 m t (2014-15) mainly under rainfed conditions. The productivity is highly fluctuating due to vagaries of monsoon. The researchers involved in the All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) on sunflower developed several technologies suitable to specific agro-ecological situations to manage drought and excess moisture. But, awareness and adoption of these technologies among farmers is far less than anticipated. Hence, effective and efficient technology transfer models are required to transfer the existing technologies from research system to the farmers’ fields in order to realize immediate gains to the individual farmers and long term gains in enhancing the knowledge of farmers. The present project was implemented to demonstrate the potential of Best Management Practices (BMPs) of sunflower developed by the researchers. Two States Karnataka and West Bengal which represent traditional and non- traditional States for sunflower cultivation were selected. Based on the climate, soils, water availability and the scope and potential of sunflower, two potential districts each representing high spread-low productivity and low spread-high productivity in the two states were identified. In consultation with stakeholders (farmers, researchers and officials of agriculture department) BMPs identified for each district/region in sunflower were demonstrated in farmers’ fields on a large contiguous areas at each site. The paper discusses the results of the demonstrations conducted on 272 farmer’s fields and their perception of the technologies in managing the variation in rainfall