Sunflower acreage rises on rising profits
Glee has pass on around homesteads of sunflower farmers as they are expecting to make a good profit thanks to a good bumper yield this year.
Harvests are expected to be higher year-on-season for the prevalence of favourable climate, according to the Division of Agricultural Extension (DAE) officials.
Farmers are being encouraged to have up its cultivation since it is possible year round everywhere, including coastal, haor and Barind Tracts even while demand keeps growing increasingly for oil from the seeds for its health benefits.
This year sunflower has been grown on 15,403 hectares of land in the united states, which is three times higher than the mark, said DAE Director General Md Asadullah.
Moreover, this year's target was set 87 per cent higher year-on-year encompassing 46 districts.
In conditions of seeds, 11,628 metric tonnes were in the beginning targeted to be produced whereas now the revised expectation was 32,500 metric tonnes, which is 5.6 times higher than that produced this past year.
Previous year's seed production was nearly double that of fiscal 2018-19's 0.03 lakh metric tonnes.
This year, Patuakhali gets the highest amount of land being cultivated, in figures particularly 3,263 hectares.
The two virtually all popular varieties are Haisan-33 and RDS-265.
"Sunflower cultivation is normally increasing daily for our promotional activities and incentives such as for example free seeds and training under different assignments," said Asadullah.
Sunflower oil contains fatty acids and vitamin E. "It really is much better in top quality as an edible oil. We are encouraging persons to grow the habit of consuming this oil," he explained.
Meanwhile, about 90 % of Bangladesh's demand for edible oil is normally met through imports mainly because locally produced varieties aren't sufficient.
Bangladesh annually imports edible oil worthy of Tk 6,600 crore with a projected expansion rate of 3.95 % while the average per capita consumption stands at 1.3 kilogrammes (kg).
However, sunflower seeds take into account around 40 % of the locally created edible oil.
According to farmers and regional millers, several litres of sunflower oil could be produced from 10 kg of seeds. Like the processing costs, the price per litre of native sunflower oil involves around Tk 150.
However, a litre of imported sunflower oil costs around Tk 200 per litre while it will be distributed at retail market segments at Tk 250, according to importers and retailers.
Meanwhile, sunflower seeds happen to be being sold for between Tk 80 and Tk 100 per kg this year, said multiple farmers.
There are no complications about the marketing of sunflower oilseeds at this time and several people, who are making oil locally and commercially by establishing factories, are purchasing the seeds from the farmers, said the DAE director.
So farmers are receiving a good selling price, which can only help boost sunflower cultivation even more, he said.
Sunflower is among the less water-consuming crops. So farmers of the dry Barind Tracts can benefit from cultivating it, regarding to agriculturists.
Due to the undesireable effects of climate modification, agricultural lands in the southwest coast are turning highly saline, allowing cultivation of solely aman paddy.
But now sunflower has been cultivated there immediately after aman harvests, creating new possibilities.
"We have already began to cultivate sunflower on saltwater. Sunflower is particularly staying cultivated in Patuakhali and Barisal belts," Asadullah explained.
Sunflower plants are likewise useful below the ground as they help naturally aerate the soil with their strong roots that penetrate and split up major clumps, enabling rainwater to trickle down deeper, according to researchers.
The plants also grow tall, that its color suppresses weed expansion, they said.
