Sunflower cultivation area in Usak has increased by 240% in the last 3 years to 34 thousand 220 decares with the help of the seed support provided by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
Farmer’s interest in sunflower, which was planted on an area of 10 thousand 20 decares throughout the city in 2021, started to increase with the projects implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
Particularly, 50% grant-supported seed distribution for oil sunflower encouraged producers for this product. So much so that the sunflower cultivation area in Usak increased to 25 thousand 200 decares last year. Turkiye support in Usak, which has large agricultural lands, continued this year as well. The cultivation area in sunflower has increased to 34 thousand 220 decares this season.
Usak Agriculture and Forestry Manager Nihat Agan told Anadolu Agency (AA) that sunflower production is becoming more widespread every year throughout the city, adding, “In the last 3 years, an increase of approximately 240% has been achieved in sunflower cultivation areas in our province.”
Explaining that they produced a total of 3 thousand 334 tons of sunflower last year, Agan said:
“Spring rains reflected positively on the harvest in 2023. Therefore, we are very pleased. The increase in this precipitation regime reflected positively not only in sunflower but also in all other production areas. We estimate that we will have a sunflower production of around 5,140 tons in 2023. We expect a yield increase of nearly 40% in sunflower agriculture compared to last year.”
Stating that the most important factor in the increase of sunflower production is the projects prepared by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Agan expressed that the support reflects positively on the farmers of Usak.
Reminding that seed support was provided to farmers in particular, Agan said, “In 2023, we distributed 500 bags of hybrid sunflower seeds with a budget of ₺2 million, 50% from our ministry and 50% from producers. This figure corresponds to more than half of the sunflowers planted in Usak.”
Source: AA / Prepared by Irem Yildiz