Safflower

Water

Rain falls about 5 irrigations (5 cm each) short in a normal year, so it's risky without water.

Needs about 530 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain in its months gives about 190 mm it can use in a normal year (100 mm in a dry one), and the soil holds about 90 mm from the monsoon at sowing.

Temperature

Grows best at 20–32 °C on average, and survives 5–45 °C.

Here, in its growing months (day / night):

• Oct 21 °C / 11 °C (outside its best range)
• Nov 17 °C / 6 °C (outside its best range)
• Dec 14 °C / 3 °C (outside its best range)
• Jan 11 °C / 2 °C (outside its best range)
• Feb 13 °C / 4 °C (outside its best range)
• Mar 18 °C / 8 °C (outside its best range)
• Apr 23 °C / 12 °C (outside its best range)
• May 26 °C / 15 °C
• Jun 27 °C / 17 °C

Soil

Soil for Safflower: 9 out of 10 (good).

Not in the score: sulphur and boron.

• The pH here suits it.
• Most fields here are short of nitrogen.

Likes pH 6.5–7.5.

Money

Yield: about 3.1 quintals an acre, the typical figure across India (no figures for your state).

Rain gives it too little of the water it needs, so there's no income figure on rain alone: grow it only with irrigation.

Mandi price at last season's harvest (June–July 2026): about ₹5,147 a quintal across India's mandis.

This week: about ₹6,080 a quintal, the middle of 12 mandis across India (latest 12 Nov).

Minimum support price: ₹7,215 a quintal (2027-28), if you sell to government procurement.

Prices are usually best in December.

Typical costs are about ₹15,000 an acre (seed, fertiliser, labour and hired machines, from the government's cost survey). They are spent whatever the harvest.