Farmers pay little attention to cultivating oilseed plants

Dar es Salaam. Tanzanian farmers pay little attention to the cultivation of oil seed plants for oil production.

As a result, they are missing an opportunity to benefit from the crops. According to the ministry of Industry, Trade and Marketing, farmers produce only 60,000 tonnes of edible oil, a quarter of the total commodity demand.

Three-quarters of the oil for local consumption is imported mainly from Malaysia, Singapore and Kenya.

More than $3.507 billion is spent on importing edible oils annually, according to the Economy Watch. The Confederation of Tanzania Industries director of policy and advocacy, Mr Hussein Kamote, said palm oil accounted for most of the edible oil imports.

Most of the imports are crude oils, which are then refined and packed for consumption.

A research report for 2012 on sunflower and palm oil by Science Technology and Innovation Policy Research Organisation notes that, there are limited efforts to increase the yield of seeds for extraction of edible oil. That is because sunflower oil production, for example, in 2004/05 was 21,325 tonnes and increased to 88,753 tonnes in 2006/07. The increase is little compared with the national demand for oil, prompting the country to import 75 per cent of its vegetable oil demand.

But it was found that sunflower and palm oil processing ventures may raise the capacity of the domestic market, save foreign currency spent on importing edible oils and stimulate non-farming activities.

Support for farmers could also increase employment and reduce rural-urban migration, and result in socioeconomic development.

According to Mount Meru Millers Limited, support for cotton farmers could generate 2,500,000 jobs, for sunflower farmers 3,000,000 jobs and for palm oil farmers 250,000 jobs. Areas famous for edible oil production include Singida and Dodoma where sunflower is grown, Kigoma and Rungwe where oil palms are cultivated and Mwanza and Shinyanga which are major cotton growers. Farmers can benefit immensely from producing edible oils.

Cotton oil, which is produced only as a by-product, can be another opportunity to commercialise farming and earn farmers more income.

The United States Department of Agriculture says production of cotton oil was 17,000 tonnes in 2011 and increased to 22,000 tonnes in 2012.

But, Mr Kamote says there is low attention to cotton oil. Its oil is just treated as a by-product when there is actually an opportunity to earn more income by treating cotton oil as an important product of the crop. “Cotton farmers are influenced by the price of cotton in the world market, but not the price of oil. That should be changed.

When the cotton price falls, farmers can still plant it for the extraction of oil apart from producing cotton.”

In general, limited edible oil production is attributed to poor attention paid to funding, education and mechanisation techniques. Mr Justine Liberio from the Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Research Organisation in his presentation titled ‘Factors contributing to the adoption of sunflower farming innovations’ at a meeting at Mlali Ward in Mvomero, Morogoro, analysed issues hindering farmers.

They include low-farm produce price, inadequate agro-processing facilities, weak cooperative unions, absence of rural financial institutions, low utilisation of appropriate technology and weak extension services.

In his research, he found that only 35 per cent of farmers had access to sunflower processing facilities and 65 per cent had no access. Only five per cent used pesticides and 17 per cent of farmers irrigated their farms.

Only 1 per cent of farmers got bank loans, 38 per cent got capital from selling farm produce and 48 per cent got finance from savings and credit cooperative societies.

In its Agricultural Sector Strategy for 2010-2014, the African Development Bank, which surveyed regional member states, found that smallholder farming was playing a major role in providing food and income, and employment generation as well as in export earnings in a number of Africa countries.

In its case study of Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda it concluded that an integrated strategy is needed to promote smallholder agricultural growth, and that the government should play a more central role in providing investment in rural infrastructure, improving the marketing chain and assisting in the adaptation to climate change.