Performance of sunflower at different pruning regimes in Acacia albida based agroforestry system

Abstract

A study was conducted in albida (Acacia albida) based agroforestry research field of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University (BSMRAU) from November/2020-March/2021 to evaluate the performance of sunflower at different light intensity created by pruning off the albida canopy at different levels. The experiment was set up in a single-factor Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. Five different treatments of the experiment were as follows; T₁: albida tree (no pruning) T₂: albida tree (25% pruning), T₃: albida (50% pruning, T₄: albida (75% pruning) and T₅: sunflower sole cropping in open field. The results revealed that T₁ treatment produced the tallest plant (100.72cm) followed by T₂ (97.48cm) while the treatment T₅ produced the shortest (72.95cm) plant. The fresh weight (81.67g) and dried weight (13.95g) of sunflower leaves were found maximum in T₄ and the minimum fresh weight (53.48g) and dry weight (8.34g) were recorded in T₁ treatment. The highest CGR (1.169mg/cm²/day) and RGR 66.58 (mg/g/day) values were found in T₅ and was not significant with T₄. The yield parameters of sunflower such as head diameter (15cm) and 1000 seeds weight (43.34g) were found maximum in T₅ (open field) which was statistically similar to that of T₄ treatment. The T₅ yielded the highest (1.13t/ha) sunflower seeds followed by T₄ (1.09t/ha). The study indicated that sunflower can be grown successfully under the albida tree canopy with 75% trimming.

Ann. Bangladesh Agric. 27(2): 119-128