Abstract Eastern India receives higher average annual rainfall (1000–2000 mm) but 80% of it occurs within the June–September (rainy season), whereas the winter season (November–March) is dry. Due to a shortage of soil moisture, most rainfed areas of the region remain fallow during the winter season and cultivation (mainly rice) is confined to the rainy season only (June–September). To explore the possibility of double cropping in the rainfed rice areas, three oilseed crops, viz., linseed ( Linum usitatissimum L.), safflower ( Carthamous tinctorious L.), mustard ( Brassica juncea L.), were grown in a representative rainfed area of eastern India, i.e. Dhenkanal, Orissa, during the dry/winter season by applying irrigation water at phonological stages. Study revealed that with three supplemental irrigations, the highest WUE was achieved by safflower followed by linseed with the mean values being 3.04 and 2.59 kg ha −1 mm −1 , respectively. Whereas, with one irrigation, the highest water use efficiency (WUE) was achieved for safflower (1.23 kg ha −1 mm −1 ) followed by linseed (0.93 kg ha −1 mm −1 ). Of the three crops studied, safflower withdrew maximum water followed by mustard and crops were shown to use 90–105 mm more water than linseed. With three irrigations, average maximum rooting depths were 1.66, 1.17 and 0.67 m for safflower, mustard and linseed, respectively, which were 13.5, 10.6 and 11.4% higher than for single irrigated crops because of more wet sub soils and decrease of soil strength. The crop growth parameters like leaf area, dry biomass were also recorded with different levels of irrigation. The research work amply revealed the potential of growing these low water requiring oilseed crops in rice fallow during dry/winter season utilizing limited irrigation from harvested rainwater of rainy season. Crop coefficients ( K c ) of three winter season oilseed crops were derived using field water balance approach. Study showed that LAI was significantly correlated with K c values with the R 2 values of 0.91, 0.89 and 0.94 in linseed, safflower and mustard, respectively. When LAI exceeded 3.0, the K c value was 1 in safflower and mustard whereas in linseed corresponding LAI was 2.5. Study revealed that the K c values for the development and mid season stage were slightly higher to that obtained by the procedure proposed by FAO, which might be due to local advection.