Economics for rainfed sunflower cultivation

Farm Questions
1

hello friends,

Can any one share economics for rainfed cultivation of Sunflower.

planning to plant it on a 30 acre plot( near chitradurga) , i was told there are some equipment that will prepare and plant with no human intervention.

Also fertiliser/pesticide application is also being done using some tractor mounted equipment. I am not experienced or planted any thing on this plot since last 4 years.

I am trying to take this up as an absentee farmer with the help of my farm neighbour.I will proceed ahead only if it makes positive economic sense.

Appreciate your inputs.

Thanks & regards

2

Hi

From my experience, nothing rain-fed makes economic sense. You may get at the most around 400-500 kgs sunflower with rate around Rs. 30/kg
Also, the wholesale marketers will take away some of your profits in the name of wastage, bad quality etc.

Same is for jowar, maize, etc.
I feel sad for our farmers who toil away in the sun for months and earn so less, not even a quarter of monthly salary of any IT engineer.

We did sunflower last year and could not recover expenses as we had depended on labour and outside tractor for everything.

Good luck to you.
Nikhil

3

Thanks Niks for sharing your experience.

By any chance can you share the input costs as well.

I was being told that , we should plant sunflower inter cropping with red gram/tuar/kandi. And as i was leaving it vacant anyway, i was trying to see if it can help me recover the maintenance expenses at least.

By the way , did you do it complete naturally i.e. without any fertilizer/pesticides? or used moderately. Trying to see if that factor influenced the output.

Thanks & regards

4

Please do not believe your neighbor farmer for everything. Farming is profitable only when your presence in there in the farm all the time for few crops and regular visit for few crops.

You will incur losses if you go by their words.

5

Thanks Krishna Prasad, Definitely I do agree about on the point of making profits.

here I am trying to find input costs , and then we can gather realistic output expectations. Without believing what my neighbor may say.

As said , at this point I am incurring expenses just keeping it non irrigated. So I am trying to see if it makes sense to plant some thing or not.

By keeping it irrigated , some level of erosion can be avoided and also saleability of land can be improved by arresting the thorny bushes comes up on the farm. at the first thought These are the inherent benefits I am hoping for, I am trying to see if i can get any additional benefits :slight_smile: out off the crop.

Thanks & regards