MoALI plans to expand sunflower cultivation to 3M acres

The Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation has been endeavouring to reach three million sunflower acres in the 2024-2025 financial year, with a view to reducing palm oil import and having edible oil sufficiency.
The ministry started to expand sunflower sown acreage to 1.5 million acres in the 2022-2023 FY. Under the State’s Economic Promotion Fund, the ministry contributed loans for oil crop growers.
A work coordination meeting to expand oil crop cultivation and ramp up yield was held on 21 August in Nay Pyi Taw.
Union Minister for Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation U Min Naung addressed the review of sown acreage by dividing crop categories into regions and states, monitoring growers to run farm operations in all acres of arable land, beefing up productivity rather than increasing acres, achieving yield target of ten main crops, ramping up of production year over year by remedying yield loss in disaster-stricken regions, designation of oil crop special zones to meet a yield target and ensuring edible oil sufficiency and not loss of yield below regular production rate outside the oil crop special zone.
Additionally, the ministry needs to persuade growers to participate actively in sunflower cultivation, conduct soil tests to monitor sunflower yield to make profits for growers, and provide pedigree crops and agricultural inputs, he emphasized.
The ministry will cooperate with related departments for designated arable lands with great potential for sunflower cultivation. — NN/KK