Zimbabwe: Sunflower farming to become mandatory

All communal farmers will soon be required to venture into sunflower farming as it seeks to substitute US$200 million worth of crude sunflower oil imports. Government has already started providing communal farmers with inputs to enable them to get involved in sunflower farming. This will ensure the country ceases imports of between 60 000 and 65 000 metric tonnes of crude sunflower oil from South Africa annually. Government has included sunflower seeds, among inputs being given to farmers this summer farming season. The sunflower seeds can be accessed at the Grain Marketing Board, which has been challenged to distribute the inputs as soon as possible. Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Minister Dr Anxious Masuka said Government is targeting to place 120 hectares of land under sunflower cropping in rural communities. Dr Masuka said Government expects to distribute at least 600 metric tonnes of sunflower seed to farmers and going forward it will be part of ...