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Nanotechnology plays a significant role in promoting agriculture and agricultural products. Agriculture and food industry aims for the sustainability and the protection of agricultural products, including crops for human and livestock. Nanotechnology helps in the manufacturing of innovative agrochemicals and novel delivery mechanisms to enhance crop production and decrease in pesticide use. Nanotechnology also contributes in increasing the crop yield in agriculture. One of the major contribution of nanotechnology in the field of agriculture is the formulation of nano based pesticides and fertilizers for increased crop production. Precise farming techniques can promote crop production without damaging soil and water, reducing losses due to leaching of nitrogen and enhancing long lasting incorporation of nutrients by micro-organisms present in the soil. Another major breakthrough of nanotechnology for improvement in agriculture production is the development of insect-resistant varieties by DNA transfer in the plants or nanoparticle-mediated gene. Biofuel production from biomass is estimated to speed up using nanotechnology. Researchers and manufacturers have to demonstrate that the application of nanotechnologies have no harmful effect on the atmosphere against the anomaly based only on small amounts of toxicological research and concerns about the safety of nanomaterials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pakistan is facing a chronic deficiency of edible oil and imports around 75% of its edible oil from other countries which is a huge burden on our national economy. The situation thus requires for enhancing the indigenous oilseed production through different possible approaches. Development and promotion of local sunflower hybrids can be one of the options. Local sunflower hybrids with higher yield and wider adoptability can make Pakistan self sufficient in edible oil. Therefore a study was carried out at National Agricultural Research Centre Islamabad, to evaluate the performance of 12 locally developed sunflower Hybrids. Twelve sunflower hybrids including two checks viz., SMH 1006, SMH 0907, SMH 0932, SMH 1208, NKS-278, SMH 1001, SMH 0917, SMH 1401, Hysun-33, SMH 0927, SMH 0909 and SMH 1215 were studied in the experiment. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. Data regarding Agronomic parameters was collected on days to flower initiation, days to flower completion, stem diameter, number of leaves per plant, plant height, head diameter, days to maturity, 100 seed weight, number of seeds per head and seed yield per hectare. Quality parameters were consisted upon oil content (%), protein content (%) and Fatty acid profile. Results showed that SMH-1001 and SMH-1215 hybrids performed best for yield and quality parameters, whereas, SMH-1006 and SMH-0909 were considered best for early maturing traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]