Sunflower is one of the fastest growing oilseed crops in India. It occupies fourth place among oilseed crops in terms of acreage and production. Vanaspati Manufacturer’s Association has estimated that, 3, 88.000 hectares of sunflower is being cultivated in India. Six states, including Karnataka, are the major producers of sunflower in the country. Framers of Bagalkot areas are busy in preparing their lands for sowing of Sunflower, one of the major oilseed crops of the region. But, price uncertainty at the time of harvest has kept them in bay and are in a fix to decide about sowing. In order to help the farmers, The experts of Domestic and Export Market Intelligence Cell (DEMIC), Department of Agri-business Management, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, is involved in facilitating the farmers to take right decision regarding sowing of the crop by predicting the prices of sunflower for upcoming months.

            In order to arrive at the forecast prices of the crop, monthly modal prices of Sunflower were collected from one of the leading Sunflower markets, Bagalkot, for the past 20 years and were analyzed by using rigorous time series analytical models and reliable forecast prices that would prevail in these markets during February- April, 2014 were established. The forecast prices were cross verified with the opinions of traders, agricultural scientists, also the futures price data obtained from National Commodities and Derivatives Exchange of India (NCDEX), and progressive farmers to fine tune the forecast prices. The prices from other major markets and the existing government policies with regard to the marketing of the crop were also considered to come up with accurate price forecast.

            According to price forecasts of the experts and opinions of traders and suggestions of the experienced persons, per quintal price of Sunflower would be around Rs. 3600-3800/- at the time of Rabi harvest, i.e., during February- April in Bagalkot regulated market. Well dried, cleaned, bold seeded grains fetch higher prices in the markets. Hence, farmers are advised to keep these things in mind while cultivating and preparing the product for the market.