Effect of Salinity Stress on Seed Yield Through Physiological Parameters in Sunflower Genotypes

Abstract

Sunflower is an important oilseed crop grown under rain-fed situation during winter/summer seasons in Northern Karnataka, India. Most of rain-fed areas have salinity problem resulting in poor yields of sunflower crop. An effort was made to screen available sunflower germplasm against graded salinity levels and relate their yield performance to various physiological parameters. Among the genotypes tested, PAC-36 recorded the highest seed yield (20.9 q/ ha) followed by KBSH-1 (19.65 q/ha), MSFH-17 (17.5 q/ha) and Morden (9.95 q/ha). Among the physiological parameters, leaf temperature increased with increasing salinity while osmotic potential, stomatal conductance and transpiration rate decreased with increase in soil salinity in all the sunflower genotypes tested. Dominance of one or more of the physiological attributes in promising germplasm indicated genetic variability in mechanisms of salt-tolerance in sunflower. © 2003, by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston. All rights reserved.