Safflower

Water

Rain falls about 2 irrigations (5 cm each) short in a normal year, so it's risky without water.

Needs about 350 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain in its months gives about 80 mm it can use in a normal year (40 mm in a dry one), and the soil holds about 200 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 26 °C / 19 °C
• Nov 24 °C / 14 °C (outside its best range)
• Dec 22 °C / 11 °C (outside its best range)
• Jan 22 °C / 10 °C (outside its best range)
• Feb 24 °C / 11 °C (outside its best range)
• Mar 28 °C / 15 °C

Months in orange are outside its best range.

Soil

Soil for Safflower: 6 out of 10 (okay).

Not in the score: salt, sulphur, zinc and 4 more.

• Soil here is often more acidic than it likes.
• Most fields here are short of nitrogen.
• Most fields here are short of potassium.

Likes pH 6.5–7.5.

Money

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

On rain alone it gets about 79% of the water it needs, so the money here is worked at 79% of this yield.

Mandi price at last season's harvest (March–April 2026): about ₹5,081 a quintal across India's mandis.

This week: about ₹6,080 a quintal, the middle of 12 mandis across India (latest 12 Nov). At that price an acre would lose about ₹42 a season at typical costs.

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.