Sunflower production technology: An economic analysis

Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) is an important oilseed crop in India popularly known as “Surajmukhi.”. Total 450 Sunflower growers were selected were selected randomly. The per cent contributed by low adopters was 10.30, medium adopters 73.33 and high adopters 16.36. The average annual employment of sunflower sample family was found to be 475.27 days at the overall level. The crop production alone provided employment to the tune of 28.55 per cent. The average annual gross income of the sunflower sample families at the overall level was ` 5, 06,984. The income received from crop production was 63 per cent.The per cent gap in seed use was 14.60. The use of chemical fertilizers shows that ‘P’ component in sunflower were used at higher levels. The per hectare yield has increased from 5.8 to 11.88 quintal per hectare over the different level of adoption. The added yield was 2.12 Q/ha and 3.96 Q/ha over the low and medium level of adoption. Thus, for producing this extra yield per hectare costs were also increased from Rs.5,347.20 to Rs.7,140.84 and accordingly, the added returns were also increased from Rs. 9,584.11 to Rs.14,361.92 The yield gap I and II was ranged between 3.12 to 9.20 and 0.12 to 6.2 per cent, respectively.The nine independent variables have jointly explained the 61 per cent variation in output for sunflower. Human labour (X1), Phosphorus (X5) and Technology adoption index (X9) for sunflower were highly significant at 1 per cent level of significance. The sample cultivators reported the problems viz: non awareness of improved technology, costly plant Protection, non-availability of human/ bullock labor for interculturing etc.