Crop-weather calendars for cultivation of sunflower crop in Punjab

Abstract

Crop-weather calendars contain integrated information on crop (from sowing to the maturity) and weather on weekly basis. They are useful in formulating the agro-advisory for the crop. So crop weather-calendars for sunflower for three different locations viz (Ludhiana, Ballowal Saunkhri and Amritsar) were developed by collecting and analyzing the historical meteorological and crop data. The weekly normals of different meteorological parameters were computed from daily weather data of the 3 locations Ludhiana (1970 -2017), Ballowal Saunkhri (1984-2017) and Amritsar (1970 -2017) over the past more than 30 years. The phenological calendars for the sunflower were computed using the actual field experiments. In accordance with recommended growth period of sunflower crop in the state, the sowing -emergence, vegetative, flowering, grain filling and physiological maturity period of sunflower were considered to extend from 1-5, 6-12, 13-15, 16-19 and 20-21 standard meteorological weeks (SMW), respectively. The optimum climatic normals for sunflower were worked out from actual meteorological data (temperature, relative humidity, rainfall, rainy day, etc.) during the high yield crop years over the past 15 years (2003-2017). The calendars for sunflower were formulated by uniting the actual weekly climatic normals for the location with the crop phenology calendar along with optimum climatic normals needed for high yield of the crop. These crop-weather-calendars developed for different growth stages can be utilized in the agro-advisory services for prediction of high crop yield as well as for timely management of the crop from adverse weather conditions.