By Chrissie Mainjeni-Chiradzulu
Sunflower farmers in Chiradzulu District are optimistic that with improved varieties and better prices for the crop, production would improve greatly, together with their economic welfare.
A female farmer, 42-year old Ireen Gama of Mpira Village in the area of Senior Chief Likoswe, said though sunflower farming is profitable and easy to manage as it does not need fertilizer, continued use of local varieties dwindles harvest and attract low prices.
“Since I started this type of farming three years ago, my life has transformed for the better. In 2024, I bought a sofa set while this year, I have started a poultry business from the K200, 000 plus I got from sunflower sales. However, the K1,100 per Kilogramme price I sold my 100 kilogrammes of sunflower for, was on the lower side,” she said.
Cereals Officer at Chiradzulu Agriculture Office, Sella Baluwa, said talks are in the pipeline with a seed manufacturing company to provide improved sunflower varieties to farmers on a contract basis, to boost production. Baluwa said her office also wants to encourage more farmers to start cultivating the crop on a larger scale.
“Currently, we have 3,691 sunflower farmers who have produced 3,201 Kilogrammes of the crop per hectare in the 2024/2025 farming season. For now, we have only one reliable buyer but we hope that with increased production, more buyers will trickle in,” she said.
Baluwa also revealed plans to connect farmers with AGCOM for a possible loan to purchase machinery that would help in the extraction of oil and value addition. She observed that the current arrangement of relying on oil refining companies in Blantyre is costly to the farmers.
Economic Expert Misozi Kazembe, said sunflower farming has strong potential to contribute meaningfully to Malawi’s economic growth especially in rural transformation, industrial development and import substitution.
However, she observed that the extent of the benefits depends on scaling up production, increased value addition and policy support.
“Sunflower farming can play a key role in reversing or stabilising cooking oil prices by reducing import dependency, lowering processing costs as well as increasing market competition,” she said.
She further suggested that sunflower should be added to Malawi’s export-oriented cash crops, particularly for regional exports for seeds and oil and longer term value added products.
Apart from extracting cooking oil, sunflower residues can be used to make animal feeds and add nutrients to the soil.
