{"id":4998,"date":"2016-05-10T11:30:13","date_gmt":"2016-05-10T10:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/?p=4998"},"modified":"2016-12-21T14:43:49","modified_gmt":"2016-12-21T14:43:49","slug":"sunflowergroup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/sunflowergroup\/","title":{"rendered":"Future shines bright for sunflower producers"},"content":{"rendered":"

For members of\u00a0the Chalimbana Sunflower Group in Eastern Zambia, the future is bright.<\/p>\n

The 22 mainly women members from\u00a0Lundazi District have not\u00a0alone increased the production on their small plots, but have also more than doubled their earnings from sunflower production since they were organised into a producer group by Self Help Africa, three years ago.<\/p>\n

\"sunflower350\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In a region where\u00a0three out of four \u00a0are poor, and more than half the population struggle to meet their families minimum nutritional needs, the success in earning more is enabled the members of\u00a0Chalimbana Sunflower Group to work their way out of poverty.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The group’s income boost is a direct result of their increased production, together with the purchase of a diesel-powered seed press that has enabled them to add value to their crop by processing their seed harvest into cooking oil that they bottle and sell in\u00a0local markets.<\/p>\n

A popular supplementary crop that has significant earning\u00a0potential for rural poor farming households across the region, this group of sunflower growers have also adopted\u00a0a range of crop management best practices, including early planting, weed management and crop spacing.<\/p>\n

Access to better quality planting seed has also contributed to their increased yields.\u00a0In a region where just 10% of sunflower growers access seed from formal channels, and most farmers either multiply their own seed or purchase low-grade seed from their neighbours, the potential for increased yields from better seed access is considerable.<\/p>\n

Chalimbana Group members say that they are paid more than twice the amount for oil than they received previously when they sold raw seed to middle-men who in turn sold their crop on to processors.<\/p>\n

With their increased income group members have bought bicycles, televisions and telephones, have carried out improvements to their homes, invested in livestock, and paid school fees for their children.\"sunflower_2_850\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sunflower growers in Eastern Zambia are benefitting from the production of cooking oil from the seed that they produce.<\/p>\n Read More<\/a>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5000,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[686,700,637,679],"tags":[68,76,70,110,189,734,230,292],"class_list":["post-4998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-enterprise-development","category-featured","category-news","category-zambia","tag-agriculture","tag-enterprise","tag-farming","tag-gender","tag-seed","tag-sunflower","tag-women","tag-zambia"],"yoast_head":"\nFuture shines bright for sunflower producers - Self Help Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sunflower producers have a bright future as a result of their increased yields and oil processing.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/sunflowergroup\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Future shines bright for sunflower producers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sunflower producers have a bright future as a result of their increased yields and oil processing.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/sunflowergroup\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Self Help Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SelfHelpAfrica\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-05-10T10:30:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-12-21T14:43:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/05\/sunflower_850.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"850\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"504\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Self Help Africa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@comms\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@selfhelpafrica\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Self Help Africa\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/sunflowergroup\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/sunflowergroup\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Self Help Africa\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/#\/schema\/person\/ef27df5dc9e961797418d7a8bf315404\"},\"headline\":\"Future shines bright for sunflower producers\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-05-10T10:30:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-12-21T14:43:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/sunflowergroup\/\"},\"wordCount\":313,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/sunflowergroup\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/05\/sunflower_850.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Agriculture\",\"enterprise\",\"Farming\",\"gender\",\"seed\",\"sunflower\",\"women\",\"Zambia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Enterprise Development\",\"Featured\",\"News\",\"Zambia\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/sunflowergroup\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/sunflowergroup\/\",\"name\":\"Future shines bright for sunflower producers - 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