Sunny days for sunflower growers

Sunflower is turning into a hot commodity. A growing shortage of the seeds in the market, even as demand balloons, has forced edible oils manufacturers to either import more or use other alternatives to sustain production.

But as most are finding out, that is not sustainable, especially when it comes with trimming margins. So to keep prices low and stabilise supply of the raw material, local manufacturers led by Bidco Oil Refineries Ltd are offering to buy sunflower stocks across the country in the hope that this will entice farmers into planting more.

Although Bidco’s move is driven by the need to meet its rising demand for raw materials to process edible oils, a scramble for these seeds is bound to have far-reaching ramifications on the crop and farmers.

According to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), Kenya averaged 12,000 metric tonnes of sunflower seeds annually between 2002 and 2005.

Although production was to increase the following year to 14,000 metric tonnes, it has stagnated there ever since.

“We are ready to roll out relevant agronomic programmes for the crop if private investors create a market for farmers by investing in processing sunflower seeds,” Agriculture Permanent Secretary Dr Romano Kiome said last week, as Bidco stepped up its appeal to farmers to supply it with the seeds.

New dawn for farmers

This marks the beginning of a new dawn for the crop, which the government admits to have ignored for some time. The last time government instituted policies targeting sunflower was way back in 1996 before abandoning it because “it was of little value to the farmers.”

Dr Kiome said the State washed its hands off sunflower farming when the then key buyer of the crop, East Africa Industries Ltd (now Unilever East Africa) started sourcing from and processing its edible oils in Mauritius and Madagascar.

“It (sunflower farming) was no longer economical to our farmers because they had no market for their sunflower seeds,” he said.

The impact of the government’s decision has been telling on a versatile crop that is suitable for cultivation in most parts of western Kenya especially Busia, Embu, Meru and much of Ukambani districts in Eastern, most of Coast and some parts of Rift Valley and Nyanza.

According to Bidco director Chris Diaz, the country’s total production of 14,000 metric tonnes is less than half of their annual demand of 30,000 metric tonnes, a fact that has forced them to meet their needs by importing seed oil from Uganda and Tanzania.

“We are ready to buy all sunflower seeds in Kenya,” he said, echoing the message the edible oils, fats and hygiene products manufacturer has been conveying through an ongoing advertisement campaign, where it is promising to pay farmers Sh25 per kilogramme of the seeds.

And in the wake of the growing demand from other processors in the country such as Arkay Industries, Ummoja Maintainance, Tapioca, Mitunguu Millers and Tana Millers, the government and Kenyans in general may be compelled to change their view of the crop sooner than later to reap from this building boom.

Yet the government cannot be solely blamed for the country’s low sunflower seeds production levels.

“Sunflower production in the country is constrained by poor agronomic practices, lack of high-yielding varieties, shortage of good quality seeds, lack of access to credit and weak research-extension-farmer linkage,” says Dr John Omiti, a senior policy analyst with government think-tank, Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA).

No wonder the country is lagging behind. Some of the world’s leading sunflower seeds producers include, the Russian Federation, 6.28 million metric tonnes, Ukraine, 4.7 metric tonnes, Argentina, 3.6 metric tonnes, China and India, 1.8 metric tonnes each and South Africa at 690,998 metric tonnes.

Other African countries cultivating the crop are Ghana, Zimbabwe, Uganda and Tanzania while internationally we have others like US and Malaysia.

“Kenya is the lowest ranked in the region both in production and consumption hence the need for the government and all other local players to come in and promote and enhance the growing of sunflower,” says Mr Diaz.

With the country’s traditional cash crops of horticulture, tea, coffee and sugar cane needing heavy investments to produce besides being susceptible to the vagaries of weather and global market dynamics, the benefits of sunflower could be major.

“It is a very good commercial crop if it is supported well through increased demand from local processors,” admits Dr Kiome.

This is understandable given that sunflower only takes four months to mature and, therefore, can be grown three times a year making it a more profitable cash crop than most seasonal and cash crops.

In many areas, sunflower does not need fertiliser after a maize harvest, agronomists say, as it can utilise the residues left in the soil and give a better yield. This means it can be grown during short rains after harvesting the main crop.

What is more, it does not need lots of rain and crop management is easy. And most of the local farmers know how to grow it.

“Investment to grow sunflower is low. For around Sh6,000 per acre, a farmer can realise a yield per acre of around Sh20,000. This means there is a gross margin of Sh14,000 per acre,” says Mr Diaz of Bidco.

Health benefits

With more people and governments becoming environmentally conscious and organic foods beginning to dominate dinner tables across the world, processors demand for sunflower seeds is expected to rise steadily.

“This is an incentive for farmers to expand production to more than half an acre for home consumption because it is a good source of nutritious food and quick income generation,” says Dr Omiti, who is also the head of productive sector division at KIPPRA.

But what needs to be done to boost the country’s production capacity? To enhance and sustain output of sunflower, farmers should be trained in production and processing.

In addition, researchers and extension officers should enhance training on marketing, farming as a business, and utilisation of different sunflower products and by-products. Also farmers should accumulate enough savings from sale of oil and cake to purchase a more efficient motorised oil press.

“There is need to improve the efficiency of the current oil press from 32 to 40 per cent to avoid losses,” says Dr Omiti. Mr Diaz said there are good hybrid seeds produced locally by Kenya Seed Company and Pannar Seeds of South Africa.

“A farmer only needs a two-kilogramme bag of seeds per acre, which costs around Sh350-Sh400 to start off,” says the Bidco director who notes that, besides training farmers through its field officers, they have partnered with Equity Bank to provide credit facilities to growers they contract.

With agriculture, which accounts for a quarter of the country’s total wealth as measured by GDP, picked as one of the key drivers of Kenya’s long-term economic development strategy, sunflower could turn out to be a key player in Vision 2030.