Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Agricultural Water Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/agwat Effect of methods of irrigation and sulphur nutrition on seed yield, economic and bio-physical water productivity of two sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) hybrids Priyanka Sahoo a , A.S. Brar a, ⁎ , Sanjula Sharma b a Department of Agronomy, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab, 141 004, India b Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab, 141 004, India ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Sunflower Drip irrigation Sulphur nutrition Water use efficiency Bio-physical and economic water productivity ABSTRACT A field experiment was conducted to find out the effect of methods of irrigation and sulphur nutrition on pro- ductivity of sunflower hybrids at Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana during spring season of 2016 and 2017. The experiment was laid out in randomized complete block design and treatments comprises combination of two hybrids (PSH 1962 and PSH 996), two methods of irrigation (drip and furrow irrigation) and four sulphur levels (0, 20, 40 and 60 kg S ha -1 ). PSH 1962 recorded 12.9% higher seed yield with 27.3% higher economic water productivity because of significantly superior yield attributing characters viz. capitulum diameter, capi- tulum weight, seeds per capitulum and 1000 seed weight than PSH-996. PSH 1962 recorded Rs 9393 ha -1 higher net returns along with 10.8 and 3.5% higher bio-physical water productivity (BPWP) and oil content than PSH 996, respectively. Drip irrigated crop produced significantly higher seed yield along with saving of 38.0% irrigation water and 32.6% higher water use efficiency as compared to furrow irrigated crop. Net returns, bio- physical and economic water productivity were also 32.7, 5.3 and 20.9% higher in drip than furrow irrigation, respectively. Seed yield increased successively and significantly with each increment in sulphur from 0 to 60 kg S ha -1 . Sulphur nutrition with 60 kg ha -1 recorded 31.1, 18.8 and 8.0% higher seed yield than 0, 20 and 40 kg ha -1 , respectively. Oil content increased to the tune of 3.2, 1.9 and 0.8% with 60 kg S ha -1 than 0, 20 and 40 kg S ha -1 , respectively. Net returns were Rs 11,185 ha -1 higher from 60 kg S ha -1 than control (0 kg S ha -1 ) with 23.3% higher benefit: cost. Economic water productivity improved to the tune of Rs 2.32 with 60 kg S ha -1 over control (0 kg S ha -1 ) with each cubic metre of consumptive use (actual evapotranspiration). Drip irrigated crop produced 18.8, 12.2 and 11.3% higher seed yield than furrow irrigated with 20, 40 and 60 kg S ha -1 . Drip irrigation also resulted in Rs 4.01, 2.49, 1.18 and 0.02 higher net returns with each cubic metre of consumptive use than furrow irrigation with 0, 20, 40, and 60 kg S ha -1 , respectively. 1. Introduction Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) commonly known as ‘surajmukhi’ belongs to family compositae and is a native of North America. In India, sunflower is cultivated on 0.59 million hectare, with total production of 0.43 million tonnes at productivity levels of 736 kg ha -1 (Anon., 2015). In Punjab, sunflower was grown on 6400 ha with total production of 11,500 tonnes at productivity levels of 1792 kg ha -1 (Anon., 2016a). Sunflower seed contains 40–45 % oil and 30% protein. The crude sunflower oil has light amber color, but in other hand refined oil has pale yellow with oleic acid 42–57 % and linoleic acid 33–48 %. Sun- flower oil is a rich source of vitamin B 1 and B 2 complexes than other oilseed (Caldinin, 1958) and consists of high amount of monounsaturated and poly-unsaturated fatty acids as well as high vi- tamin E content, which competes with soybean, rapeseed, palm oil and cotton seed in world oilseed complex (Kleingartner, 1997). Hence, sunflower oil is considered as premium oil because of good nutritional value and high smoke point (252–255 °F). India has imported edible oil of worth rupees 68,676.62 crores during 2015–16 (Anon., 2016b), which is a big drain on Indian economy. In India sunflower oil being imported mainly from Ukraine, Russia and Argentina to meet edible oil demand. But on the other hand India exports sunflower cake to other countries as animal feed (Nayak et al., 2013). Sunflower being a prospective and versatile oilseed crop can help to meet the increasing demands of edible oils and also check country’s import exchanges. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2018.05.009 Received 29 September 2017; Received in revised form 14 May 2018; Accepted 18 May 2018 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: braras@pau.edu (A.S. Brar). Agricultural Water Management 206 (2018) 158–164 0378-3774/ © 2018 Published by Elsevier B.V. T