Residents of Lugari sub-county in Kakamega have been encouraged to embrace sunflower farming to boost the government’s efforts in promoting locally produced edible oil.
Lugari Deputy County Commissioner Simon Mutai and Chekalini Ward Agriculture Officer Linet Kiyari made the rallying call at Koromait in Chekalini location during a public baraza.
They said sunflower farming has numerous benefits besides improving the economy and providing a cheap sustainable source of cooking oil for households.
The government collaborates with selected counties to implement a five-year edible oil crops promotion project through the Agriculture and Food Authority.
Mutai said it is ironic for the government to continue importing edible oil from other countries yet we are blessed with fertile soils and favourable weather conditions.
“We are appealing to farmers in the three selected wards of Chekalini, Lumakanda and Mautuma in Lugari sub-county to seize the opportunity to grow sunflowers. We are lucky to be among the three sub-counties enlisted for the project," he said.
“Initially farmers abandoned sunflower due to market challenges but now the government has asked the Agriculture and Food Authority to do the marketing. Let farmers take advantage of the program and diversify their farming activities as the crop only takes about three months to be ready,” he added.
Mutai said many registered farmers in the three wards received free seeds from Kenya Seed Company.
Kiyari said the government is investing heavily in sunflower farming after realising it spends a lot on edible oil imports.
“The government has been spending a lot on importation hence the need to sensitize and encourage farmers to revert to sunflower and other edible crops farming.
“Apart from sunflower, we shall also grow soya beans. Those are the two edible oil crops the county government is promoting within Kakamega County.”Kiyari explained.
She said during the registration of farmers willing to engage in sunflower farming, most village elders claimed that residents initially abandoned the crop, due to challenges posed by birds, a claim she dismissed saying pricing was the biggest problem.
“The major challenge was on marketing. Birds are only a challenge for two to three weeks. However, the marketing challenge is being worked upon as the county government negotiates prices with potential buyers.
“Besides capacity building farmers, the county government also has plans to acquire oil extraction machines which will be stationed closer to farmers. With the machines easily accessible the farmer will be at liberty to either sell the oil or use it,” she said.
The Agriculture and Food Authority will implement an edible oil crops promotion project to encourage affordable and quality inputs, technical support on production and cottage-level processing.
Sunflower, widely adapted to almost all ecological zones in the country, is one of the crops singled out as a viable alternative towards achieving self-sufficiency and import substitution.
The proposed project will create employment opportunities in seed distribution, production, produce aggregation, transportation, warehousing and agro-processing.
Within the next five years, interventions through the project are anticipated to increase domestically produced edible oil from the current 80,000 metric tonnes to 240,000 metric tonnes.
This will produce 1.5 million metric tonnes of soya bean, canola and Sunflower seed for use as raw material in oil extraction.
