Climate change projections for the 21st century pose great threats to semi-arid regions, impacting seed production and the quality of sunflowers. Crop yields are negatively affected by climate variability, especially in the event of droughts during the crucial growth stages. Understanding the relationships between agrometeorological, genetic, and agronomic factors is crucial for maintaining crop sustainability. Optimal sowing dates are an essential condition for maximizing crop genetic potential, but challenges come from annual weather variations. This study analyzes how sunflower genotypes respond to different sowing dates under climate change and focuses on the conditions for obtaining maximum seed yields and favorable agronomic traits. From 2020 to 2022, the experiment featured six genotypes sown across four different dates at two-week intervals, simulating seed sunflower production. The results obtained by ANOVA indicated that the seed yield and oil yield were significantly affected by the sowing date, the genotype, and their interaction, with coefficients of variation ranging from 7.6% for oil yield to 41.1% for seed yield. Besides seed yield and oil yield, LDA biplot and Discriminant Functions confirmed that seed germination energy also played a significant role in separating genotypes into clusters. A Visual Mixed Model showed that shifting the optimal sowing date (mid-April) to early May allows a reduction in the number of days the plants spend in critical growth stages, thereby escaping stressful conditions during pollination and seed filling. The findings resulted, on average, in increased yields and improved seed quality, which are the primary goals of seed production, but not in increased 1000-seed weight. Notably, high temperatures during the critical sunflower growth stages negatively affected the measured parameters of seed production. The increased precipitation during seed filling boosted the 1000-seed mass and seed yield. Extended flowering reduced the growth rate and seed germination, but longer seed filling increased the 1000-seed mass and seed yield. Our future breeding goals will be to create genotypes with a shorter flowering period and an extended seed-filling period to better respond to climate change.

Sunflower seeds are key agricultural commodities due to their nutritional and industrial value. This study aimed to analyze the distribution of targeted bioactive compounds and assess the physical properties across 27 sunflower seed genotypes, including parental lines and F1 and F2 hybrids, cultivated in Serbia. Various analytical techniques were employed to determine the chemical composition and physical characteristics of the seeds. This research revealed significant genetic variability in fatty acid profiles, with differences in polyunsaturated and saturated fatty acid levels among the genotypes. Hybrid seeds displayed variations in 1000-seed weight and bulk density compared to parental lines, which exhibited higher essential fatty acid contents and mechanical properties advantageous for industrial processing. These insights highlight the potential for refining breeding strategies to improve seed quality for specific industrial purposes. Overall, this study emphasizes the critical role of genetic selection in enhancing the nutritional and processing qualities of sunflower seeds, offering valuable perspectives for advancing agricultural and breeding practices.

Drought stress significantly threatens crop productivity worldwide, requiring a comprehensive understanding of plant adaptations to alleviate its adverse effects. Sunflower, as an important source of edible oil, is greatly affected by drought in different developmental stages. This review investigates the morphological aspects and phenological adaptations of sunflower under drought conditions. Through a detailed description of morphological and phenological changes in sunflower, induced by drought, we aim to unravel the plant’s strategies for coping with water scarcity. In addition, the study describes genetic background of drought tolerance in sunflower, as well as insight about valuable genetic resources. Finally, we have described drought mitigation mechanisms known in sunflower, through morpho-physiological adaptations and agricultural practices which can alleviate the effect of drought. As a future strategy this research emphasizes the importance of genetic diversity in cultivating drought-resilient sunflower, using modern breeding techniques through genomic selection and omic’s technologies as a promising strategy in the face of escalating water limitations and development of drought tolerant and tenacious sunflower.

Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) is one of the most important crops grown in the world, but it can be attacked by more than 30 different pathogens. The areal of Macrophomina phaseolina (Tassi) Goid., one of the sunflower pathogens nowadays often found in temperate regions, has been spreading over the last few years due to climate change. The most effective eco-friendly method for controlling charcoal rot caused by M. phaseolina is growing resistant sunflower cultivars. Due to that, 24 commercially available hybrids and 70 inbred lines were tested for M. phaseolina tolerance in a two-year trial. Under the field conditions, two different inoculation methods were used - the Unwounded Stem Base Inoculation (USBI) and Toothpick (TP) method. This study identified five highly tolerant hybrids and 12 inbred lines that can be used in breeding programs for improvement of future genotypes. Sunflower genotype screening tests for Macrophomina tolerance indicated that both inoculation methods should be applied together to provide reliable results, and that stem lesion length is a reliable trait for disease severity assessments.

The most frequent oil crops in Serbia today are sunflower and soybean, planted on over 200,000 ha each, followed by rapeseed, which increases significantly in surfaces. Black and white mustard, hemp, oil pumpkin, castor bean, flax, poppy, sesame and safflower are grown on smaller surfaces. In Serbia, a total of 355 varieties of oil plant species were on the variety list in 2017, out of which 188 were sunflower, 83 soybean and 71 rapeseed, followed by oil pumpkin, hemp, white and black mustard and castor bean. Among the domestic and foreign seed companies, the Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops from Novi Sad prevails with 150 registered varieties. Camelina, flax, poppy and safflower are in the registration process. In the ten-year period 2008-2017, the seed production of oil crops averaged 9,955 ha per year, of which the highest were soybean (8,200 ha per year) and sunflower (1,732 ha per year), and on small areas: rapeseed, oil pumpkin, poppy and hemp. In the 2016/2017 season in Serbia, 19,657,116 kg of soybean, 1,666,267 kg of sunflower, 137,179 kg of rapeseed and small quantity of white mustard seed, cannabis and oil pumpkin seeds were certified (all seed categories). Over 86% of declared sunflower seed and over 94% of rapeseed is imported. Serbia belongs to bigger European producers of soy and sunflower, has favorable agroecological conditions for the cultivation of oil crops, long tradition of breeding, strong processing sector, quality human resources and capacities and developed system of state regulation in seed production. The advantages Serbia has in breeding, seed production and growing of oil crops, have not been adequately exploited.

Sunflower seed treatments are inevitable measure that ensures protection from soildwelling insects and pathogens at the first stages of plant development. Due to the ban of neonicotinoid based insecticides for the sunflower seed treatments, new registered preparations are put to test. The aim of this work was to assess the efficacy of currently registered insecticides against the wireworms (observed in field emergence and percent of damaged plants) and their effect on yield traits (yield, oil content and 1, 000-seed weight) of the sunflower hybrids (Sumo 2 OR, Oliva and Novak) in comparison to previously used neonicotinoids. Seeds were treated with different pesticidal combinations: metalaxyl-m, metalaxyl-m + bifenthrine, metalaxylm + thiacloprid, metalaxyl-m + thiametoxam, and metalaxyl-m + imidacloprid. Twoway ANOVA and Duncan’s multiple range tests were performed. Field emergence was not influenced by the treatment. Sumo 2 OR and Oliva emergence did not differ significantly among the treatments (78.3-88.3%; 83.0-91.3%, respectively), but for Novak it was significantly lower (79.3%) when treated with metalaxyl-m. The lowest percent of damaged plants was in the treatment with metalaxyl-m + thiametoxam (1.1-2.4%). However, it did not differ significantly among other treatments (2.4-3.9%), regardless on the hybrid. Novak had the highest average yield (3,938.1 kg*ha-1), followed by Sumo 2 OR (3,566.1 kg*ha-1), and Oliva (3,199.8 kg*ha-1), regardless on the applied seed treatments. The highest 1,000-seed weight was measured for Oliva. Given indicates that currently registered insecticides for the seed treatment of sunflower, such as Sonido and Semafor, can be adequate substitute to the banned neonicotinoids like Cruiser and Gaucho.