Sunflower acreage grows to meet self-sufficiency

Sagaing Region will extend sunflower cultivation projects in the 2022-2023 Financial Year to secure local consumption of edible oil and reduce the imports of the oil.
Sunflower cultivation is cost-effective. Growers can adopt the intercropping system as well, so they can add more acres.
There was a total of 2.1 million acres of paddy with 1.8 million acres of monsoon paddy and 300,000 acres of summer paddy in the Sagaing Region in the 2021-2022 Financial Year. Additionally, the edible oil crops including peanut, sesame and sunflower covered 1.46 million acres in Sagaing Region.
During the current 2022-2023FY, the sunflower acreage will increase up to 390,000 acres of edible oil crops in the Sagaing Region.
That project will cover 11 districts including Naga Self-Administered Zone, mostly Yinmabin District with 100,000 acres, Sagaing District with 79,000 acres and Shwebo District with 74,000 acres.
Yezin hybrid-1 and Sin Shewkyar-2 sunflower varieties will be cultivated due to their high yield. The seed production fields will be implemented on 2,000 acres in Sagaing, Myinmu and Myaung townships under the Union government plan. Another 2,000 acres will be placed under sunflower plants in Monywa, Shwebo and Yinmabin districts under the regional government plan. The seeds produced from those fields will be directly distributed to the growers.
The Sagaing Region Agriculture Department is endeavouring to provide necessary agricultural inputs, have adequate irrigation water, carry out ploughing operations in time, and meet a target of 390,000 acres of sunflower in the region in cooperation with the related departments. — Myo Win Tun (Monywa)/GNLM