ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF BIOFERTILIZER INOCULATION FOR SUNFLOWER (HELIANTHUS ANNUS L. PRODUCTION UNDER SALINE SODIC CONDITIONS
Present study was carried out at NARC, Islamabad during kharif season 2012 13. Thirty six bacterial strains were isolated but only eight were selected because of their high indole acetic acid (IAA) phosphorus solubilization (PS) and ACC deaminase activity. These strains were tested in two field trials under different salinity levels (9.43 and 7.51 dS m 1 Sunflower seeds were inoculated with biofertilizer containing these strains. Six treatments; T1 (un inoculated) T2 (KS 44) T3 (KS 7) T4 (KS 41) T5 (KS 42) and T6 (KS mixture) were tested in these experiments. Economic analyses of two field experiments was carried out to select the best alternative treatment bearing optimum economic benefits against control (un inoculated) The data revealed that treatment T2 (KS 44) had the highest cost benefit ratio (1:4.36) marginal rate of return (16665) and residual value (117190) Rs ha 1 among all treatments at site1 (EC 9.43dS m 1 whereas at site 2 (EC 7.51dS m 1 treatment T2 (KS 44) also had the highest cost benefit ratio (1:4.31) marginal rate of return 9628 and residual value 114598 Rs ha 1 among all treatments and proved to be the best treatment on both sites. Hence bio fertilizer containing these PGPR strains could be recommended to get maximum return from saline sodic soils by growing hybrid sunflower crop (SMH 0917)