The Tanzania Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture (TCCIA) has appealed to agricultural firms and research institutes to develop new sunflower seed varieties to boost crop yield in the country.
Central Zone Executive Secretary of TCCIA Iddi Senge said yesterday that the current type of sunflower seed had been in use in the country for over 50 years, saying lack of various types of sunflower seed had been a challenge to high crop yield.
"A variety of sunflower seed will help improve productivity of the cash crop in the country," said the central zone executive secretary.
Reports suggest that sunflower oil firms here suffer a shortage of sunflower forcing them to operate for only six months in a year.
Central Zone regions of Dodoma and Singida are the country's main producers of the cash crop.
Mr. Senge hailed the Cereal and other Produce Board of Tanzania (CPB) for importing sunflower from Greece, saying it was now vital to increase productivity of the sunflower crop.
Last week, CPB said it planned to set up a sunflower plant in Kizota to increase sunflower oil production.
The plant will be able to process 15,000 tonnes of sunflower seeds a day.
Mr. Senge explained that the new varieties of sunflower seed would help farmers use a small piece of land for bumper harvest, thus stop clearing trees. He said trees were vital for mitigating the outcome of climate change.
He also called for the deployment of extension officers in areas which produced sunflower to help farmers to improve production.
"There is a need for developing a strategic plan to improve sunflower seeds and deploy extension officers to areas producing the cash crop to increase productivity," he observed.