The Small Scale Farmers Development Agency-SAFADA says the increase in the production of sunflower is as a result of farmers wanting to diversify and grow crops that can earn them more income.
According to information made available to the Zambian Business Times-ZBT, by the Zambia Statistics Agency-ZAMSTATS, sunflower production is expected to increase from 75, 142 metric tonnes in the 2020/2021 farming season to 80, 164 metric tonnes in the 2021/2022 farming season.
SAFADA Executive Director Boyd Moobwe explained that very few farmers are growing sunflower due to the poor market system adding that currently, there are few companies buying sunflower compared to the many that used to buy the crop years ago.
In an interview with the Zambian Business Times-ZBT, Moobwe said one of the reasons there is a poor market for sunflower is because most processors choose to extract edible oils from other crops such as soyabeans.
Moobwe mentioned that when considering what crops to grow, farmers consider the yield of a crop as well as inputs so that they can realise as much income as possible when they sell the produce noting that farmers can harvest between 1.2 tons to 2.8 tons of sunflower per hectare.
“Although in Zambia traditionally, you hear farmers saying you don’t need fertilizer, it will grow by itself and then the yield will be poor, there is poor management and due to that farmers drag behind and say this is not good to grow”, he said.
He noted that the prices are also discouraging but when compared to maize, sunflower is better adding that most farmers prefer to grow soya beans over sunflower as it fetches more money.
“For soya beans you produce about 8 tons per hectare, you get a lot of good money, the price is atleast better than maize, better than sunflower. Maize is now discouraging them because of too much politics in it, maize being a staple food is quite political but soya beans, sunflower and other crops, there is nothing like government trying to intervene”, he said.
Moobwe said he is hopeful that the production of sunflower will increase in the near future as people try to get back to organic foods because sunflower does not require a lot of chemicals like groundnuts unlike other crops like cotton and tobacco, which require a lot of chemicals.
