Africa-Press – Tanzania. ABOUT 40bn/- will be spent on constructing appropriate irrigation scheme for the farms under the Agriculture Seed Agency (ASA) to help production of quality sunflower seeds which will increase availability of sufficient edible oils in the country.
The commitment was made in the august House by Deputy Minister for Agriculture, Hussein Bashe, when responding to a question by special seats Member of Parliament Nusrat Hanje.
The legislator wanted to know the government’s plan to boost production of quality seeds for the crop using farms available in the Singida region.
Responding, the minister said the government recognizes the contribution of sunflower to the availability of cooking oil in the country, adding that about 68.9 percent of cooking oils was from the crop while other edible plants such as palm, groundnuts, cotton, Soya and sesame contribute about 31.1percent of the oil produced in the country.
Mr Bashe said the major objectives of the infrastructure development plan was to produce seeds for various crops such as rice, maize, palm oils, cotton and wheat to help farmers get rid of tendency of developing seeds using their harvests.
The minister said having proper infrastructure would increase the production of sunflower seeds from 538.71 tonnes in 2019/2020 to 10,000 tonnes by the year 2030.
According to the deputy minister, for the past three years ASA increased seed production from 74.2 tonnes in 2016/17 to 166.0 tonnes in 2019/20 while the private sector produced 372.71 tonnes.
