Sunflower: FG promises repositioning for larger market

The Federal Government (FG) of Nigeria has said she is ready to make the value chains of sunflower productivity more robust through effective policy with availability of subsidized inputs support to farmers for more competitiveness in the international market. This was disclosed by the officer in charge of Sunflower desk, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) Mr. Sunday Obasi during his presentation at the one day sensitization programme organized by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment (FMITI) in Abuja recently.

Mr. Obasi said that the economic relevance of sunflower in terms of its oil contents for healthy living and economic importance has motivated the need why FG cannot fold her hands without ensuring an active positioning that would enhance the productivity of the produce in the international markets adding that government has promised to give farmers improved inputs at a subsidized rate.

He advocated for best agronomics practice of the produce emphasizing more on organic farming that would enhance premium price than the conventional farming in the global market saying that there is need for the Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR), Zaria to intensify on research that would give more oil content to sunflower which was presently below 30%.

 The desk officer stressed that the high cost of processing equipment, limited data or information about the value chains of the produce, high cost of foreign exchange, lack of awareness about modern techniques and low budgetary allocation for the crop are part of many challenges confronting sunflower adding that the ministry is already looking at the produce through the value chain of processing for more intervention.

The chairman of the event, a director at the department of Commodities and Products Inspectorate (CPI), FMITI, Mr. Napoleon Abalaka admonished for policies that would help the industry grow faster towards more wealth generation for the country, stressed the need for investment into research and support for stakeholders that would ensure repositioning of the produce productivity for job creations.  

Abalaka stressed that it was key to sensitize the general public on the economic potentials of sunflower and emphasised for best agronomic practices for increased productivity of the commodity, saying that the sunflower subsector is one of the potent sectors that can create more jobs.