With farm gate price of good quality sunflower seed likely to hover around Rs. 3,500 to Rs. 3,600 per quintal till October, farmers are advised to sell their produce immediately on harvest.

The current farm gate price at Vellakoil Regulated Market was ruling between Rs. 3,400 and Rs. 3,500 and to facilitate the farmers to take better decision, Agro Marketing Intelligence and Business Promotion Centre in Tamil Nadu Agricultural University carried out an econometric analysis of price behaviour prevailed in the market for the last 14 years.

In Tamil Nadu sunflower was cultivated in 0.07 lakh hectare with a production of 0.05 lakh tonnes in 2014-15, with an oil recovery of around 35 per cent.

Karur, Tuticorin, Tiruchi, Dindigul, Virudhunagar and Ariyalur districts accounted for 81 per cent of area and 79 per cent of production in Tamil Nadu.

Sunflower is the fourth largest edible oil seed produced in India and was cultivated in 3.83 lakh hectare with a production of 2.53 lakh tonnes in 2014-15, which however was less than 24 per cent in area and 36 per cent in production when compared to 2013-14.

The major producers of sunflower are Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab and Tamil Nadu in India.