Indore (Madhya Pradesh): After 15 years of research, two city-based agriculture scientists have developed a high oil-yielding variety of safflower seeds that has boosted farmers’ income by at least 30 per cent.
The oil seed variety is proving to be a boon for farmers of eight states; Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana, Odisha, and Jharkhand.
Dr Usha Saxena and Dr Mukesh Saxena of College of Agriculture, Indore developed a variety named Raj Vijay Safflower that has more oil content than any other Safflower variety and it has been notified by the All India Coordinated Research Project on Oilseeds.
“The variety has 39% seed oil content which is a breakthrough as the oil content in majority of the released Indian safflower cultivars ranges from 28 to 30%. It recorded 37.2% and 32.5% higher oil content over the check varieties A-1 and PBNS-12, respectively.
Also, RVSAF 18-1 recorded an average oil yield of 676 kg/ha at the national level which was 31% higher than the checks A-1 and PBNS 12. The variety recorded an average seed yield of 1746 kg/ha at the national level which was on par with the checks (1772 kg/ha),” said Dr Mukesh Saxena, principal scientist.
“The variety was developed by hybridization followed by selection through the Pedigree method. It has undergone multilocation testing under AICRP (Safflower) for three consecutive years (Rabi 2018, 2019 and 2020). RVSAF 18-1 is a spiny variety bearing yellow flowers which become orange at the dry stage.
The variety matures in 127-131 days with 50% flowering at 77-85 days. It is moderately resistant to Fusarium wilt which is a major disease of safflower,” said Dr Usha Saxena, principal scientist.
How Can This Variety Become A Game-Changer?
This variety can produce 160 kg extra oil yield per hectare than the currently cultivated safflower varieties. Based on the oil content of 28-32% in majority of the varieties, 4-4.5 kg of seed is required for expelling one litre of oil.
In varieties like RVSAF 18-1 with almost 40% oil, which is more than 30% higher than the check varieties, only 3-3.5 kg seed is sufficient to extract one litre of safflower oil.
It is a great boon for farmers, oil crushers and the nation. It holds promise to ease the deficit oil situation in the country and with suitable policies in place, can result in additional income for the farmer.
Safflower Controls Cholesterol
The advertisement that you might have come across promoting oil controlling cholesterol levels uses safflower oil as their major ingredient which is later blended with rice bran oil.
