As many as 9,000 acres of land will be brought under sunflower cultivation in Sialkot, Daska, Pasrur and Sambrial tehsils of Sialkot district. According to Agriculture Department sources, the sowing of sunflower has started in various parts of the district.
The government was making hectic efforts to motivate the grower community to bring their maximum land under sunflower crop for making the country self-sufficient in edible oil, said the sources.
At present, Pakistan is producing only 30 percent of edible oil, while 70 percent was being imported to cater the domestic needs. The sources disclosed that 187.1 million tones of edible oil at a cost of Rs 109 billion was imported during 2007-08, while oilseeds, costing Rs 28 billion, were also imported during the same period.
They said the government was making all out efforts to reduce the import of edible oil through the promotion of sunflower and oilseed cultivation in the country. Due to rapid increase in population, the import of edible oil was increasing every year for fulfilling the domestic requirements. Meanwhile, some growers said that small farmers were hesitating to cultivate the sunflower crop because of poor supporting price of their crop.
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