Salinity Effect on Germination and Early Seedling Growth of Sunflower

Salinity is a significant ecological imperative to crop productivity all through the arid and semi-arid areas of the world. This problem is more acute in developing countries like Bangladesh which is facing immense challenges of climate change, specially the coastal zones. The prevailing salinity intrusion due to climate change is severely affecting the crop productivity in the saline regions of Bangladesh. The situation calls for an urgent need to improve crop productivity. Introduction of new crops and/or crop varieties in the fallow lands of the coastal regions might be a solution to improve system productivity. Rabi season is the most important season where there have highest scope to increase food production in the vast fallow lands of this areas. Introduction of sunflower, in the coastal saline soils could be most profitable approach to improve food production as well as income of the farmers. In this context it is very important to know what extent of salinity sunflower can tolerate. Therefore, this study will help to decide which areas of the coastal region will be suitable for sunflower.