HOW SUNFLOWER CAN GROW LOCAL COOKING OIL INDUSTRY

Despite Tanzania being the second biggest sunflower producer in Africa behind South Africa, and accounting for about a third of the continent’s total production, the country still imports nearly half of the edible oil it consumes annually.

This is largely due to low production of sunflower and other sources of edible oil such as groundnuts, sesame, cotton and oil palm. However, the cultivation of sunflower – which grows well in semi-arid and semi-humid areas – has been steadily increasing in recent years.

This demonstrates the potential that sunflower farming has, and it behooves farmers and other stakeholders to take full advantage of the attendant opportunities.

However, there are three major challenges which need to be addressed by the government and other stakeholders so that the sunflower sub-sector can play an important role in the edible oil industry ion Tanzania.

These are availability of proper sunflower seeds, assured access to finance and reliable markets.

Stakeholders such as the Agricultural Markets Development Trust (AMDT) have shown the way through their bundled services, which help farmers to get proper seeds and access some financial services.

Research into different seed varieties should be encouraged to help farmers who are currently struggling with low-yield seeds.

Hybrid seeds are inordinately expensive, costing around Sh30,000 per kilogramme, but with the availability of more seed varieties and more local producers, prices should drop.

Availability of financial services in rural Tanzania is still a major challenge, with stringent credit terms, security, exorbitant interest rates and repayment terms discouraging potential borrowers, especially smallholders.

But smallholder farmers can surmount the risks if they are supported in improving their farming methods and processing their produce.

Another point is about supporting the markets for sunflower oil – both local and export.

Today, the Tanzanian market is awash with imported palm oil, a situation which is most discouraging for farmers and other investors in the sector.

UNCLAIMED BODIES: TIME TO ACT

Rising numbers of unclaimed bodies at mortuaries and lack of burial space is cause for grave concern. Latest statistics show that tens of thousands bodies were unclaimed in the past three years, prompting local authorities to dispose of them.

Many urban centres are running out of burial space, which calls for immediate action.

Changing economic trends force young people to migrate to metropolises, seeking nonetheless elusive greener pastures.

Many of them have no personal identification papers, and when tragedy strikes, metropolitan authorities step in the breach, interring the unclaimed bodies that clog mortuaries.

The dead may have craved decent burial, but without proper identification, this is well nigh impossible.

It is high time a reliable DNA database was established, but, for now, the government is duty-bound to provide education on why having national identity cards makes a difference.