Posted on August, 23, 2018 at 10:31 am
Amsha Institute’s Coordinator for Rural Entrepreneurship, Omari Mwaimu said over 5,000 farmers from the region’s 20 villages which have suitable soils fir sunflower cultivation will be involved.
Mwaimu said research carried out by Aga Khan Foundation in Lindi and Mtwara regions in 2017 indicated that 99.9 percent of land in Lindi region is suitable for sunflower production.
“We have decided to introduce sunflower cultivation in Kilwa district, to begin with after discovering that demand for sunflower oil is growing in the country and with government’s plans to reduce importation of edible oil, there is an opportunity for farmers,” Mwaimu noted.
He said the project targets to produce 4m metric tons of sunflower during the 2018/19 season.
“We expect to reach at least 250 farmers in each village who will be trained on modern commercial farming of the commodity for higher yielding and quality sunflower that meets domestic and international market needs,” the Amsha Institute Coordinator noted.
According to Bank of Tanzania, the country imports 60 percent of total edible oil requirement despite having vast production potential in the sunflower sub-sector. The production potential is missed as the national average yield is 0.6 tons compared to potential yield of 2.0 to 3 tons per acre, the central bank said it its recent report.
In a research paper titled, 'Potentiality of Sunflower Sub-sector in Tanzania of March 2017,' the BoT indicated that that local production of both factory and home extracted sunflower seed oil contributes about 40 percent of edible oil requirement of 330,000 tons per annum.
"This sub-sector is largely untapped, measures to boost sunflower production would definitely impact significantly on economic wellbeing,” the paper stated.
The government’s Sunflower Sector Development Strategy of March 2016, outlines comprehensive approaches on how to promote the sub-sector to exploit the local market which depends on imports.
The BoT figures on sunflower seed output correspond with that of United Nations Industrial Development Organisation UNIDO which put annual output of around 350,000 tons corresponding to about 90,000 tons of oil, making Tanzania one of the top ten sunflower oilseed producers in the world.
Source: The Citizen