Introduction

Sunflower (Helianthus annus) originated in America and is a member of the Asteraceae family.
Its production began in the early sixteen century in Europe (Anjum et al., 2012). It is one of the
most significant oilseed crops on the planet. Seeds of sunflower contain 40% oil and 17-20
percent protein (Çiçek et al., 2019). Sunflower is high yielding oilseed crop and can meet up the
breach amid utilization and indoor production of nutritive oil. Besides, It has a small life cycle
(90-120) days and can be grown up over three times in an associate year (Hussain et al., 2013). It
has broad utilization in food, medicines, and make-up sectors plus biodiesel production(Clapco
et al., 2018). A 100 grams of seeds are thought to own 20.78 g proteins, 50 g fats, 3.02g ash, 20g
carbohydrates, and 8.6 g fiber, entirely 2445kj of energy. In addition, it has a decent supply of
choline (55.1 mg) and adequacy (35.4 mg) (Anjum et al., 2012). Some elements of sunflower
such as selenium, have also been studied for their ability to scale back the incidence of bound
forms of cancer. Sunflower meal or cake (a superb result separated by helianthus handled seeds)
accounting for 36 percent of mass composition and protein level starting from 45-50% (Adeleke
and Babalola, 2020). Given the importance of sunflowers from a health standpoint, their
cultivation is declining owing to a lack of viable seed and skills and knowledge about current
trends and technologies. Only a few hybrids are developed by both Government and Private
sectors till now. So farmers in Pakistan with low lands don’t prefer this crop as they have other
alternatives as cash crops. Local edible oil production was 0.33 million tons which was just 10%
of the available quantity and the remaining 90% was imported which was 3.31 million tons,
amounting to 2.42 billion US dollars (RS440 billion) (Pakistan Economic Survey, 2020-21). In
this practice, we tried to make crosses of some genotypes and analyzed the data of different
agronomic traits which contribute to achene yield and fatty acid profile. This study will combine
ability analysis of different agronomic traits using different statical tools. So that hybrids and
parents which has the potential of increase in yield and nutrients status of its oil and other by-
products according to soil and water availability conditions of Pakistan could be found.

Material and Method

Materials for experiment consisted of genotypes of sunflower that were taken from Plant
Breeding and Genetics department at Agriculture university of Faisalabad. Inbred lines were
sown at the research area of plant breeding and genetics. All female lines (A-23, A-25, A-28, A-
40) were crossed to male lines (A-24, A-26, A-39) to produce hybrids Crop harvested at the end
of May Then seeds of every single hybrid was preserved for the next growing season In
September crop regrow at the research area of plant breeding and genetics department Different
hybrids were plotted in the filed with RCBD fashion. Plant to plant and row to row distance were
25cm, 75cm respectively. All the cultural practices and management operation were done. Data
of all the desired characters (Plant Height (cm), Seed Emergence %, Flower Initiation %, 50%
Flowering, No. of Leaves, Leaf Area (cm²), Fresh Head Size (cm), 1000 Achene Weight (g),
Achene yield per Plant (g), Oil Contents (g/kg), and Fatty Acid Profile %) were taken from
germination to the maturity level of the crop. Average 5 plants data was collected from each
replicaton. NIR machine was used for the determination of oil contents and fatty acids in the
sunflower in the lab. Recorded data for recommended traits was statically analyzed by analysis
of variance (Steel et al., 1997). Heterosis, Heretibility, and combining ability wias analyzed by
the Line×Tester approach (Kempthrone, 1957).