In the Asian continent, after China, India is the second largest sunflower growing country. In India, edible oilseeds are cultivated over an area of 19 million hectares with 17 million tonnes production. Peanut, rapesced mustard, sunflower, sesame and safflower are the major ediblc oilseed crops. However, about 75 per cent of the total oilseed production is contributed by pcanut and rapcseed mustard. Next only to these crops, in recent years sunflower has emcrged as a potential oilseed crop in both rainfed and irrigated farming.