Farmers have been advised to take sowing decision appropriately as the farm gate price of good quality sunflower seed, during harvest in February-March will be around Rs.3,300 to Rs.3,400 per quintal.

The Price Forecasting Scheme in Tamil Nadu Agricultural University analysed the last 16 years of sunflower seed prices prevailed in Vellakoil regulated market and provided this advisory for the benefit of growers.

Sunflower was sown in an area of 5 lakh hectares with production of 4.5 lakh tonnes in 2016 in India, with Karnataka being the leading producer followed by Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, West Bengal and Maharashtra.

Major districts growing sunflower in Tamil Nadu are Karur, Thoothukudi, Virudhunagar, Dindugal, Ariyalur and Tiruchirapalli.

However, the area under sunflower cultivation has reduced drastically in Thuraiyur, Musiri, Kovilpatti, Virudhunagar and Erode due to failure of the North East Monsoon, the analysis said.
But in the areas like Harur, Pappireddipatti and some parts of Tiruchirappalli, normal sowing is expected in the coming months. The area under sunflower has also reduced considerably during recent years in other major production centers of the country.
However, the price of sunflower seeds may remain stable as India import large amount of sunflower oil from Ukraine, Argentina and Brazil, it said.