Sunflower
Sow in October, harvest around January
Still sowing time: sow by the end of November.
Grown on 198 acres here. Priced from mandis across India.
₹10,000–₹15,000
per acre a season, before costs
Likely a loss at typical costs: ₹9,000–₹13,000 an acre a season
- Needs care: Risky: 2 irrigations short
- Suits: Ideal temperatures
- Suits: Soil 9/10
Why, and how to make it work Hide details
Water
Rain falls about 2 irrigations (5 cm each) short in a normal year, so it's risky without water.
Needs about 280 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain in its months gives about 20 mm it can use in a normal year (0 mm in a dry one), and the soil holds about 190 mm from the monsoon at sowing.
Temperature
Grows best at 17–34 °C on average, and survives 5–45 °C.
Here, in its growing months (day / night):
- Oct 32 °C / 22 °C
- Nov 30 °C / 16 °C
- Dec 29 °C / 13 °C
- Jan 28 °C / 13 °C
Soil
Soil for Sunflower: 9 out of 10 (good).
- The pH here suits it.
Likes pH 6.0–7.5.
How the soil score worksMoney
Yield: about 2.5 quintals an acre, the typical figure in your state (your district's own figure looked wrong).
On rain alone it gets about 77% of the water it needs, so the money here is worked at 77% of this yield.
Mandi price at last season's harvest (January–February 2026): about ₹6,349 a quintal across India's mandis.
This week: about ₹7,283 a quintal, the middle of 20 mandis across India (latest 13 Nov). At that price an acre would lose about ₹9,000 a season at typical costs.
Minimum support price: ₹8,343 a quintal (2026-27), if you sell to government procurement.
- ₹5,570 2021
- ₹5,590 2022
- ₹4,440 2023
- ₹4,340 2024
- ₹4,960 2025
Prices are usually best in August.
Typical costs are about ₹23,000 an acre (seed, fertiliser, labour and hired machines, from the government's cost survey). They are spent whatever the harvest.