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Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) is an important oil seed crop in Pakistan having the potential of bridging gap between production and consumption of edible oil in the country. The experiment was conducted at National Agriculture Research Center (NARC) Islamabad, Pakistan, during August to December, 2016, to evaluate different exotic sunflower hybrids for their performance and adaptability in the field area of NARC. Twelve sunflower hybrids including one check i.e. SF-16013, SF-16007, SF-16010, SF-16005, SF-16006, SF-16002, SF-16008, SF-16004, SF-16011, SF16003, SF-160011, Hysun-33 were studied in the experiment. The experiments were carried out in Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. The distance between adjacent rows was 75 cm while the distance between plants to plant was 30 cm. The seed was sown in the first week of August. The following parameters were studied in the experiment i.e. days to flower initiation, days to flower completion, plant height, days to maturity, stem diameter, head diameter, number of leaves, 1000 seed weight and seed yield per hectare. Quality parameters were consisted upon oil content (%), protein content (%), and fatty acid profile. The results showed that significantly highest seed yield (2187.3) kg ha-1 was produced by SF 16003 followed by SF16010 and SF 16002 having (2016.2) kg ha-1 and (1888.2) kg ha-1 seed yield respectively. The Cluster analysis also determined SF 16003 as best hybrid which was at a very close distance from the group of SF16010 and SF 16002. [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]