Safflower production

Safflower is a multipurpose oil seed crop that can be used for cooking oil production, as vegetable crop, cut flower, forage crop for both forage and animal feed, industrial crop for dye production and medicinal crop. Safflower is a drought, heat, cold and saline tolerant crop. Despite the usefulness of safflower and its drought, heat, cold and salt tolerance, it has remained underutilized and minor crop because of lack of information on its crop management, locally adapted varieties, product development from it, and reluctance of farmers to adopt a new crop. It’s essential for the scientific community to carry out research on this crop and popularize it as a commercial crop for development of pharmaceuticals, edible oil, paint and varnishes industry, dye extraction, source of α-tocopherol, livestock feed, vegetable and cut flower. This book was written primarily as a resource for researchers, university students, processors, product developers and farmers involved with safflower research and/or production. It contains sections on what safflower is, uses, botany, origin, physiology, ecological requirements, and many aspects of production such as plant density, weed control, intercropping and cropping systems, fertilizer requirements, irrigation, harvesting and storage, and safflower diseases and pests.