THE EFFECTS OF BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL FERTILIZER SOURCES ON THE PRODUCTION AND QUALITY OF SUNFLOWER

Abstract

<p class="abstrakinggris"><span lang="EN-US">Bio-fertilizers improve nutrient availability and reduce the need to use chemical fertilizers and hold a great promise to increase crop yields. To study the effects of different nutrition systems, this research evaluated the individual and combined effects of bio-fertilizers and compared their efficiency with nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) chemical fertilizers on the yield of sunflower (<em>Helianthus annuus</em> L.) in the 2017–2018 crop year in Hamedan, Iran. The field experiment included a combination of two factorial experiments, consisting of (a) the application of chemical nitrogen (N<sub>0</sub>=0, N<sub>1</sub>=45, N<sub>2</sub>=90 kg ha<sup>-1</sup>) and phosphorus (P<sub>0</sub>=0, P<sub>1</sub>=40, P<sub>2</sub>=80 kg ha<sup>-1</sup>) fertilizers, and (b) the application of N-fixing bacteria <em>Azospirillum</em> and <em>Azotobacter</em> (BN<sub>0</sub>=0, BN<sub>1</sub>=0.5, BN<sub>2</sub>=1 L ha<sup>-1</sup>), and P-solubilizing bacteria <em>Pseudomonas</em> and <em>Bacillus</em> (BP<sub>0</sub>=0, BP<sub>1</sub>=0.5, BP<sub>2</sub>=1 L ha<sup>-1</sup>) bio-fertilizers. Each experiment used a 3×3 design with nine treatments and arranged in a randomized complete block design with three replicates. Results indicated that the chemical N and P fertilizers significantly increased the grain yield, thousand-grain weight, plant dry weight, protein percentage, and harvest index. Furthermore, bio-fertilizers significantly increased the grain yield and harvest index. The application of bio-fertilizers with N-fixing bacteria and P-solubilizing bacteria improved the growth and yield characteristics of sunflower. Sunflower oil yield was similar among all treatments, ranged from 2.22 to 5.7 t ha<sup>-1</sup>. Grain yield ranged from 5.12 to 5.88 t ha<sup>-1</sup>. A similar result between treatments with the chemical and bio-fertilizers suggests that bio-fertilizers are potential alternatives to chemical fertilizers.</span></p>