Let sunflower help grow local edible oil industry
What you need to know:
This is largely due to low production of sunflower, and other edible oil sources like groundnuts, sesame, cotton and oil palms.
Tanzania is the second biggest sunflower producer in Africa, behind South Africa – accounting for 35 per cent of the continent’s total production – yet the country still imports nearly 50 per cent of its edible oil needs.
This is largely due to low production of sunflower, and other edible oil sources like groundnuts, sesame, cotton and oil palms. However, the cultivation of sunflower – which grows well in semi-arid and semi-humid areas – has been steadily increasing.
This demonstrates the potential that sunflower farming has, and it behooves farmers and other stakeholders to take full advantage of the attendant opportunities.
There are three basic challenges which need to be addressed by the government and other stakeholders in making the sunflower sub-sector play an important role in the edible oils industry.
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 on different seed varieties should be encouraged to help farmers who are currently battling 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 to rehabilitate their farms and support SMEs in 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.
