Yalcin Kaya

Chapter 4 – Sunflower

Sunflowers (Helianthus annuus L.) grow in dry areas, so they are heavily influenced by environmental conditions. Sunflower yield increased drastically after hybrids entered production in the 1980s, but sunflower yield has changed little right up to today. Therefore, sunflower breeders should investigate this lack of heterosis by planning new plant designs utilizing both land races and wild species. Seed yield is mostly related to three main characters: plants per hectare, seeds per plant, and seed weight. Physiologically, these traits are mostly related to higher photosynthesis, nutrient uptake, and water use efficiency rate. Anatomically, these include larger leaf area, larger flower heads, increased plant height, and longer seeds. Increased plant biomass as a result of larger leaf area, greater plant height, and leaves with shorter petioles and hence smaller plant diameters will increase plants per hectare without decreasing leaf area. Furthermore, having larger flower heads, hybrids will suffer less from drought stress, especially in seed-filling periods, and greater seed weight will be obtained. As a result of new plant designs and increased leaf area, new hybrids could achieve higher heterosis regarding seed and oil yield – the main target of sunflowers.

Eastern Europe Perspectives on Sunflower Production and Processing

Publisher Summary After the major producer, Argentina, turned to more soybean and corn in recent years, Eastern European countries, especially Ukraine and Russia, lead the production and crushing of sunflower in the world. Eastern European sunflower producers comprise the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Serbia, and others. While sunflower is one of the main crops in the rotation system and the main oil crop in Eastern Europe, European countries share only 14% of worlds arable land areas, even including Russias vast land area in addition to the Black Sea basin. All sunflower production in Eastern Europe is of the linoleic type, as opposed to the new trend for oleic-type sunflower in the rest of the world.