Residents of Lugari Sub County in Kakamega County have been encouraged to embrace sunflower farming to boost the government’s plans to promote locally produced edible oil and cut on imports.

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 noted that sunflower farming has numerous potential benefits for the community besides improving the local economy and providing a cheap, sustainable source of cooking oil for households in the area.

Mutai said the government, in collaboration with selected county governments, is implementing a five-year Edible Oil Crops Promotion Project through the Agriculture and Food Authority to enhance domestic production.

He 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.

He said, ‘We are appealing to farmers in the three selected
wards of Chekalini, Lumakanda, and Mautuma in Lugari Sub County to seize the opportunity and grow sunflower. We are lucky to be among the three subcounties enlisted for the project in Kakamega County.

‘Initially, farmers abandoned sunflower growing due to market challenges, but now the government has tasked the Agriculture and Food Authority to do the marketing.

‘Let farmers take advantage of the programme and diversify their farming activities, as the crop only takes about three months to be ready.’

Mutai disclosed that a large percentage of registered farmers in the three wards have already received free seeds from Kenya Seed Company, which was tasked by the government to distribute the right seeds.

Kiyari, on her part, told residents that they will have themselves to blame if they have not benefitted from the programme when the five years’ elapse.

She said the government is investing heavily in sunflower growing upon realisation that it is spending a lot on edible oil imports.

‘The government has bee
n spending a lot on importation, hence the need to sensitise and encourage farmers to revert to sunflower and other edible crop farming.

‘Apart from sunflowers, we shall also grow soya beans. Those are the two edible oil crops the county government is promoting within Kakamega County.’ Kiyari explained.

She disclosed that 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.

She said, ‘The major challenge was marketing. Birds are only a challenge for two to three weeks. However, the marketing challenge is being worked upon as the county government is negotiating 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 s
ell the oil or use it.’

The Agriculture and Food Authority will be implementing an edible oil crop promotion project which seeks to support the availability of affordable and quality inputs, technical support on production, as well as promoting cottage-level processing.

Sunflower, which is 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 contribute towards the creation of employment opportunities in a number of areas, including seed distribution, production, produce aggregation, transportation, warehousing, aggregation, and agro-processing.

Within the next 5 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 lead to a production of 1.5 million metric tonnes of soya bean, canola, and sunflower seed for use as raw materials in oil e
xtraction.

Source: Kenya News Agency