Organic Farming Studies in Sunflower

Field experiments were conducted for two consecutive Rabi seasons of 2003-04and 2004-05 at Tirupati , Southern plateau and Hills zone of India on red sandy soils with fourteen treatments comprised of six different sources of nitrogen viz., farm yard manure, vermicompost, neem leaf, poultry manure, pig manure and fertilizer to supply recommended dose of nitrogen on equalant nitrogen basis and one absolute control were tried with and without the foliar application of Panchagavya, . All the growth and yield attributes, yield (seed as well as stalk) harvest index, nitrogen uptake and gross returns as well as net returns of sunflower were at their best with recommended dose of fertilizer either with or without Panchagavya spray. The highest oil content of the seed was recorded with neem leaf manure in combination with Panchagavya, which was however, comparable with all the other four organic sources tried in combination with Panchagavya, but significantly higher than with the fertilizer either with or without the use of Panchagavya. The highest phosphorus uptake of sunflower was recorded with poultry manure either with or without the spray of Panchagavya, while the potassium uptake was the highest with vermicompost either with or without the spray of Panchagavya. Irrespective of the source of nutrient supply, foliar application of Panchagavya resulted in higher nutrient uptake of sunflower than with the use of respective organic manures alone without the use of Panchagavya. Among the organic sources tried, the highest net returns and benefit-cost ratio of sunflower were realized with poultry manure in combination with Panchagavya.