Sunflower south africa pdf

Sunflower Farming in South Africa There has been a positive trend during the past few years of more sunflower hectares being planted using no-tillage farming practices in the Great Plains region of the US and Canada, but South Africa still lags in the conversion to conservation agricultu Sunflowers as Animal Feed Whole sunflower heads can be shredded, dried and chopped in a hammer-mill and the sunflower plant can be used as silage for animal feeds Types of Sunflowers In South Africa, the red sunflower and Mexican sunflower type, both native species of Mexico and introduced as ornamental species in South Africa, have been declared alien invasive weeds Uses of Sunflowers Sunflower petal infusion can be used as a soap and as a dye and when dried, petals are used in crafts such as paper and candle making.

Sunflower petals are also used to infuse wine All Rights Reserved. However, one underlying factor stood out in all production regions for why producers are reluctant to expand the area under sunflower production, and that is that under ideal growing conditions or irrigation, sunflowers do not provide the same upward potential as crops like maize and soybeans.

The adverse effects of the wrong planting dates have been trailed and propagated to producers and those who have adapted to guidelines of optimal cropping practices have achieved improved yields. It seems as if sunflower hybrids that are currently available in the local market do have the genetic potential to produce higher yields. Furthermore, the introduction of advanced Clearfield Plus sunflower breeds offers a major benefit in the management of weeds and opens the opportunity for growing sunflowers in no-till or minimum till farming systems.

Graph 2 illustrates the gap between the average yields obtained in the ARC-GCI yield trials and the average yields obtained in the various provinces. Naturally, yield trial data will always produce higher yields on small plots compared to actual full scale production. It does, however, illustrate the yield gap that exists between the genetic potential of the plant and the actual yields that are obtained in the field. What is more interesting to note is that these gaps seem to be proportionally larger than what is the case for maize and soybeans.

Drawing any final conclusions merely on yields is an over-simplification of a complex production system. The stochastic outlook was generated by imposing the actual historic variations in yields, costs and prices of a specific farm on to the outlook that was generated by the BFAP sector level model.

It has to be mentioned that this 1 ha crop farm in the North West Province cannot be regarded as a typical farm as actual yields that were recorded over the survey period - exceeded the average yields of the region. This, however, stresses the point that if sunflowers are treated as a cash crop in its own right, it becomes a profitable enterprise to consider.

The results indicate that the sunflowers proved to have a higher average gross margin than maize over the long run and more importantly, the potential minimum gross margin for sunflower remained positive throughout the outlook period, whereas the potential minimum gross margin for maize turned out to be significantly negative. At the end of the day it all comes down to the competitiveness of the industry.

It is important to take a holistic approach since it is not only the competitiveness of sunflowers relative to other cash crops at farm level that counts, but also the competitiveness of the complete value chain relative to the major exporting countries. The sunflower seed price is derived from the cake and oil prices and since these commodities are imported, the domestic industry is facing stiff competition from imported seed, oil and cake that can be traced right back to farm level.