Bengaluru: The Karnataka government has taken a major step to fulfill Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream of ‘agricultural self-reliance’ and increasing oilseed production in the country. The Karnataka government has made a plan to restart sunflower cultivation on a large scale in the entire state. Sunflower production in Karnataka had declined significantly in the last few years due to the outbreak of diseases, increasing cost of cultivation and farmers choosing other crops. Now, this new initiative of the government will give a new life to sunflower cultivation in the state.
According to agriculture department officials, sunflower farming in Karnataka has shrunk drastically over the past decade. Once considered one of the state’s major oilseed crops, sunflower acreage has now fallen to nearly 12% of its earlier cultivation levels. Groundnut farming has also witnessed a major decline, while crops such as maize and tur dal have expanded significantly due to higher profitability and better climate resilience.
Officials attribute the collapse of sunflower cultivation primarily to the spread of bud necrosis disease, which severely damaged crop yields and forced thousands of farmers to abandon oilseed farming. Agriculture authorities noted that maize cultivation in Karnataka expanded from around five lakh hectares to nearly 18 lakh hectares, while tur cultivation in rain-fed northern districts also witnessed rapid growth.
To reverse this trend, the state government, under the Centre’s National Mission on Oilseeds, has started distributing improved and disease-resistant sunflower seed varieties through farmer-producer organisations and certified seed agencies. In 2025, improved oilseed varieties were cultivated across approximately 41,000 hectares in Karnataka. The government is also conducting field-level demonstrations to improve productivity and encourage farmers to return to oilseed cultivation.
Officials said the Centre has additionally approved procurement of 9,023 metric tonnes of sunflower seeds from Karnataka under the Minimum Support Price (MSP) mechanism for the 2026 rabi season. The procurement support is aimed at protecting farmers from distress sales and ensuring stable market returns. The MSP for sunflower seeds has reportedly been fixed at ₹7,721 per quintal, with procurement centres expected to operate across multiple districts.
The revival push comes at a time when India continues to depend heavily on imported edible oils. Government officials estimate that the country imports nearly 56% of its edible oil requirements, resulting in an annual foreign exchange outgo of approximately ₹1.7 lakh crore. Palm oil imports largely come from Indonesia and Malaysia, while soybean oil is sourced mainly from Argentina and Brazil. Sunflower oil imports, earlier dependent on Ukraine, are increasingly shifting toward Russia amid geopolitical disruptions.
The Karnataka government has trained around 900 farmers to grow good quality seeds and extract oil. The government is providing a subsidy of up to ₹9.9 lakh for setting up oil extraction machines (processing units). The aim is to strengthen the entire process, from cultivation to oil production, so that the state can become self-sufficient in edible oil.
