Earnest appeals to propel sunflower farming forward

From LUDOVICK KAZOKA in Dodoma

THE Tanzania Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture (TCCIA) has appealed to agricultural firms and research institutes to develop new types of sunflower seed to uplift the level of productivity of the cash crop in the country.

The Central Zone's Executive Secretary of TCCIA, Mr Iddi Senge, said here yesterday that the current type of sunflower seed had been in use for over fifty years, noting that lack of variety was a big drawback. "A variety of sunflower seed will help to improve productivity of the cash crop in the country," Mr Senge noted. The shortage of sunflower reportedly compels factories to operate for only six months in a year.
The Central Zone regions of Dodoma and Singida are the country's main producers of the cash crop. Mr Senge hailed the Cereals and other Produce Board of Tanzania (CPB) for importing the mega sunflower plant from Greece, pointing out that increasing sunflower productivity was crucial. Last week, CPB announced that plans were in the pipeline for establishing a sunflower plant at Kizota suburb, in order to increase sunflower oil production.
The plant would have a capacity for processing 15,000 tonnes of sunflower seeds a day. Mr Senge explained that the new types of sunflower seed would help farmers to use small sizes of land for bumper harvests, thereby save forests that were otherwise prone to being destroyed through wanton tree-felling.
He also called for the deployment of more extension officers sunflower-producing areas to help largely smallholder farmers to improve production .