New challenges for sunflower ideotyping in changing environments and more ecological cropping systems

Abstract

As a rainfed spring-sown crop, sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) is increasingly exposed to negative impacts of climate change, especially to high temperatures and drought stress. Incremental, systemic and transformative adaptations have been suggested for reducing the crop vulnerability to these stressful conditions. In addition, innovative cropping systems based on low-input management, organic farming, soil and water conservation practices, intercropping, double-cropping, and/or agroforestry are undergoing marked in agriculture. Because of its plasticity and low-input requirements (nitrogen, water, pesticides), sunflower crop is likely to take part to these new agroecological systems. Aside from current production outputs (yield, oil and cake), ecosystem services (e.g. bee feeding, soil phytoremediation…), and non-food industrial uses are now expected externalities for the crop. The combination of climatic and societal contexts could deeply modify the characteristics of genotypes to be cultivated in the main production areas (either traditional or adoptive). After reviewing these changes, we identify how innovative cropping systems and new environments could modify the traits classically considered up to now, especially in relation to expected ecosystem services. Finally, we consider how research could provide methods to help identifying traits of interest and design ideotypes.

Potential of Sunflower-Legume Intercropping: A Way Forward in Sustainable Production of Sunflower in Temperate Climatic Conditions

“…More importantly, the yield varies greatly from year to year, so it has become very important to achieve stability over the years to face adverse climate conditions. As mentioned, the accelerated climate change characterized by extreme climatic hazards expose sunflower, as spring-sown and usually rain-fed crop, to the direct effect of heat stress and different drought scenarios which can result in harsh yield losses and oil content decrease [29,30]. The above-mentioned claims indicate that the conditions during the growing season were very variable and unpredictable which was confirmed by four different vegetation seasons in which the experiment was performed.…”

Potential of Sunflower-Legume Intercropping: A Way Forward in Sustainable Production of Sunflower in Temperate Climatic Conditions

“…In addition to the sustainability of the production system, it is very important to achieve the desired sunflower yield as it is the most important agronomic trait. Acceler ated climate change characterized by extreme climatic hazards exposes the sunflower, a spring-sown and usually rain-fed crop, to the direct effect of heat stress and differen drought scenarios, which can result in great yield losses and oil content decrease [26,27] The above-mentioned claims indicate variable and unpredictable conditions during the growing season, which was confirmed by four different vegetation seasons in which the experiment was performed. Figure 5 shows the yield data from our trial compared to the data from multi-environment trials for hybrid performance evaluation.…”

Genetic Variability for Early Growth Traits in Second Season Sunflower

“…In addition, most sunflower varieties available to date have been bred for the conventional system that may not be suitable for double cropping in terms of maturity groups (MGs) or tolerance to water stress that further exacerbates the risk of crop establishment failure. Consequently, there is a need for phenotyping new crop varieties that are adequate for double cropping (Debaeke et al, 2021).…”