Impact of Organics and Inorganics on Growth and Yield of Sunflower Based Intercropping System

• DOI: 10.53550/eec.2025.v31i01s.059
• Publication Date: 2025-02-10T05:58:27Z
• Authors: Dharanidharan V.; C. Kalaiyarasan; S. Kandasamy; D. Venkatakrishnan; S. Madhavan; S. Ramesh

The field investigations were carried out at the Experimental Farm, Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture, Annamalai University, Annamalai Nagar 608 002 during July - October, 2023 and Jan - April, 2024 to study the conjoint influence of organics and inorganics on growth and yield attributes and yield of sunflower based intercropping system. The experiments were laid out in split plot design with three replications. The main plot treatments comprised of M1 - Sole sunflower, M2 - sunflower + greengram and subplot treatments comprised of S1 - RDF alone (60:90:60kgs of NPK ha-1), S2 : RDF + Poultry manure compost @ 6t ha-1, S3 : RDF + Poultry manure compost @ 6t ha-1 + Sulphur @ 45 kg ha-1 through gypsum, S4 : RDF + Poultry manure compost @ 6t ha-1 + Sulphur @ 45 kg ha-1 + AM Fungi @12 kg ha-1. The results of the experiments revealed that sole sunflower with RDF + Poultry manure compost @ 6t ha-1 + Sulphur @ 45kg ha-1 + AM Fungi @12 kg ha-1 (M1S4) significantly influenced the growth and, yield attributes and yield of sunflower in sunflower based intercropping system. With regard to economic returns, sunflower + greengram intercropping system along with the application of RDF + Poultry manure compost @ 6t ha-1 + Sulphur @ 45kg ha-1 + AM Fungi @12 kg ha-1 (M2S4) recorded the highest net return of Rs. 121604 with a BCR of 2.74.