Investment Analysis of Sunflower Farming and Prospects of Raising Household income in Iramba District, Tanzania

Abstract

Sunflower production has a potential toplay great role in poverty reduction in Tanzania. It grows well indry land like Iramba district where other crops cannotperform well. Despite this potential, poverty prevalence in Iramba district is still alarming as 52% ofIramba households are poor with an average earning of 85,125Tsh/month.This paper assessed the contribution of sunflower production towards reduction of income poverty in Iramba district byusing Gross Margin, Return on Investment (ROI) and poverty analysis methods. Stratified sampling technique was used to select 107 sunflower farmers for interviews. Focus Group Discussion and desk review of literature supplemented data collected through interviews. Findings of the study revealed that sunflower production achieved a gross profit margin of Tanzanian shillings 41,540.78/acre (18.71USD/acre) and a Return on Investment of 16% per acre. However, poverty analysis showed that the level of sunflower returns per acre had little contribution in terms of meeting the international poverty line. This is equivalent to only daily per-capita earnings of167.63Tsh (0.07USD) that is far below income poverty line of 4,009Tsh/day. It is therefore recommended thatlarge scale sunflower processors engage in sunflower farming through backward integration taking on board out grower schemes. The schemes will help smallholder farmers gain new knowledge on best farming practices to increase productivity and gain access to reliable market for their produce. Additionally,further research on comparison of costs and benefits for monoculture onfarm/onstation sunflower production trials byusing improved seeds should be conducted. The research should also investigatethe efficiency of mixed cropping patterns practiced by farmers to find out thecontribution of each crop in the farming systems towards income poverty alleviation.