Exploring the Adaptability of Exotic Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) as a Viable Oilseed for Oil Scarcity

Safflower is a climate-resilient, quality oilseed with high resistance to water scarcity, soil salinity, and frost-prone areas, and it has a wide range of applications in daily life, ranging from food to pharmaceutical to industrial.Adapting high-quality oil-content-producing safflower cultivars can help reduce costs and reduce precious foreign exchange in countries like Pakistan.Exotic germplasm imported from the United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS), consisting of 145 exotic safflower accessions and four local control cultivars were planted under semi-arid conditions in Faisalabad, Pakistan, during winter 2018-19 and 2019-20 season using an augmented design with unreplicated entries and replicated checks.Genotypic coefficient of variability (GCV) analysis revealed significant variation among the accessions of safflower for achene yield plant -1 , heads plant -1 , and branches plant -1 .The Pearson