Formulation of crop weather calendar for sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) under Punjab conditions
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Date
2019
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Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana
Abstract
The field experiment was conducted during rabi 2018 at the Research farm, Department of Climate Change and Agricultural Meteorology, PAU, Ludhiana to generate phenological field data for formulation of crop weather calendar under Punjab conditions. The sunflower was sown with four thermal environments; early sown (T1: 5th January), normal sown (T2: 15th January and T3: 25th January) and late sown (T4: 4th February) using two cultivars (PSH 996 and PSH 1962). The experiment was laid out in split plot design with four replications, keeping thermal environments in main plot and two cultivars in sub plot. The sunflower crop sown during 5th January took more days to complete their life cycle as compared to that sown during 15th January followed by 25th January and 4th February. Among the sowing dates, LAI, dry matter accumulation, PAR interception, radiation use efficiency (RUE) and plant height were higher and extinction coefficient was lower in early sown crop as compared to late sown crop which may be due to profuse vegetative growth. Among the yield attributes characters, early sown (T1: 5th January) and normal sown (T2: 15th January) sunflower crop produced higher number of seed / head, seed yield, stalk yield, biomass yield, but 1000 seed weight. Then for formulation of crop weather calendar the weekly and monthly normal of different historical metrological parameters was computed from daily weather data for Ludhiana, Ballowal Saunkhri and Amritsar, rabi 2003-2017. These climatic normals were used for comparing the actual data to study the effect of different meteorological parameters on yield of sunflower crop. The analysis of meteorological parameters at different locations revealed that temperature above normal in the months of March for continuous period is not favourable for sunflower productions. Heavy rainfall in the months of April and May at grain filling stage with below normal sunshine hour have directly reduced the sunflower productivity. The actual meteorological data of high yield crop years over the past 15 years were analysis for different growth stages of sunflower to work out the critical ranges of meteorological parameters. Crop weather calendar were formulated for sunflower crop by compiling the weekly climatic normals and critical limits of meteorological parameters for different growth stages and these can be used for agro-advisory service and for prediction of potential crop yield. Further weather based “Thumb Rule models” using the weekly meteorological data were formulated for predicting the yield of sunflower at 3 locations in Punjab state.
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