Agrotechnology

Salinity induced growth in sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) cv. suntech-85

2^nd International Conference on Agricultural & Horticultural Sciences

Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel, Hyderabad, India February 03-05, 2014

Sunil Kumar, Aquil Ahmad, Anwar Masood and Vandana Rao

Posters: Agrotechnol

Abstract:

An experiment was conducted at Department of Botany, Gandhi Faiz-E-Aam (P. G.) College, Shahjahanpur (U. P.) India in earthen pots to assess the adverse effect of salinity on growth parameters of sunflower ( Helianthus annuus L.) cv. Suntech - 85. The result revealed that higher levels of salinity concentration (viz. 10, 15, 20, and 25 E. C.) were deleterious to plant growth, meanwhile, the lower salinity level of 5 E. C. does not show any adverse effect rather there was slight increase in all growth parameters as compared to control (DW). Whereas, higher salinity level with 25 E. C. was deleterious and showed a decrease of 20.96, 39.92 and 22.44% in shoot length, 35.93, 33.33 and 31.50% in root length, 56.46, 29.95 and 28.81% in shoot fresh weight, 42.42, 51.28 and 34.73% in root fresh weight, 30.26, 45.54 and 27.08% in shoot dry weight, 63.41, 55.00 and 57.29% in root dry weight and 44.82, 42.30 and 38.14% in leaf number and 41.56, 33.04 and 40.00% in leaf area as compared to control at 30, 60 and 90 DAS respectively. This decrease in growth at higher salinity levels might be due to the toxic effects of salinity, and plants growing in salinity may suffer from physiological aspects such as osmotic adjustment, drought stress, ion accumulation, mineral deficiency, reduced chlorophyll content and photosynthesis and altered reduced activities of some antioxidant enzymes such as SOD and CAT.

Biography :

Sunil Kumar has completed his Ph.D. at the age of 28 years in 2008 from M. J. P. Rohilkhand University, Bareilly, India. During his Ph.D. work he got financial assistance as U. G. C. (JRF) from University Grant Commission, New Delhi. Presently, he is working as U. G. C. post doctoral fellow and part time botany lecturer at Department of Botany, Gandhi Faiz-E-Aam (P. G.) college, Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India, affiliated to M. J. P. Rohilkhand University, Bareilly, India. He has published several research papers in reputed journals, attended several national level science conferences and international workshop.