Yield and Water Use Efficiency of Sunflower as Affected by nano ZnO and Water Stress

Abstract

Zinc has an important role in plants survival under environmental stress conditions. Nano technology can be used in crop production to increase yield. In order to evaluate sunflower responses to Zno nanoparticle, an experiment was conducted in Agricultural Research Center of Islamic Azad University, Birjand branch, Iran. The experimental design was a split plot based on randomized complete block with three replications. Two irrigation treatments (full irrigation and 50% water requirement) were as main plots and 7 ZnO fertilizer levels (control, three bulk ZnO treatments and three nano ZnO treatments) were as sub plot. Water stress reduced significantly seed and biomass yield. All ZnO application treatments increased significantly seed yield mainly through increasing seed number per head. Harvest index was not significantly affected by irrigation and ZnO treatments. Deficit irrigation significantly increased seed and biomass WUE 43.6 and 40.2 percent, respectively. In full irrigation treatment the highest seed and biomass WUE were related to bulk ZnO treatments, but in water stress condition the highest biomass WUE was related to NZnO treatment. Totally the result indicated that application of nano ZnO increased seed yield and water use efficiency.  Index Terms-biomass, harvest index, nano fertilizer, seed number