Synergy Of Soil Fertilization And Pollination For Sunflowers

In order to harness the potential of ecological intensification during sunflower cropping, it is crucial to understand the potential synergies between crop management and ecosystem services. We therefore examined the effect of differing pollination intensification on sunflower yield and productivity under various levels of soil fertilization during 2017/18 and 2018/19 seasons in the eastern Free State, South Africa. We manipulated soil fertility with fertilizer treatments and used exclusion bags to manipulate pollination exclusion intensity. We found a synergetic effect between pollination and soil fertilization whereby high pollination intensity produced a far higher impact on sunflower yield when the soil had been fertilized.