Sunflower area and production variability in Pakistan: Opportunities and constraints

Abstract

The edible oil imports bill rising from Rs. 77 million in 1969-70 to Rs. 3,900 million in 2002-03 has overburdened the economy of the country. Only 30% of the total needs are met through local production, while 70% are provided by import. Major share of the domestic production of edible oil comes from cottonseed and canola, 67 and 19.6%, respectively. The remaining 13.4% are contributed mainly by sunflower. Although it is a high oil, high yielding crop that gives high returns to the farmers, no serious effort has been made to increase the local production of sunflower. Consequently, the sunflower acreage declined from 144,191 ha in 1998-99 to 107,717 ha in 2002-03 and the production from 194,544 to 128,531 t during the same period. The 1998-99 acreage was the maximum area under sunflower achieved. The big fluctuations in sunflower acreage and production are due to its price on the market. In the period of last 15 years, the sunflower acreage in Pakistan expended from 29,500 to 107,700 ha. The sunflower production rose at the annual rate of 9.9%, comprised of a 9.7% expansion in acreage and a minor improvement in productivity amounting to 0.16%. This increase was not sufficient to meet the requirements of the country. There is a big gap between the potential and actual yields of sunflowers. More than 70% of the potential have not been achieved yet. For this purpose the R 2 value was also calculated and, keeping in view the fluctuations in the time series data, second-degree equation was also measured. Logarithmic and exponential functions were also tested but the variability in the data measured by the R 2 value was best represented by seconddegree polynomial function. When the data seem to depart more or less widely from linearity in regression or time series analysis we must consider fitting some other curve instead of the straight line. The R 2 value was also improved with second-degree polynomial function for production from 43% to 58% showing a better fit of the trend line. The sum of the error terms was "0" for second-degree polynomial function but it gave a better fit due to a higher R 2 value. The higher b value for production portrays an increase in the productivity. The sum of squares for the estimated and observed values was 0. However, due to a low value of the coefficient of determination with linear trend and variation in the data, second-degree polynomial function (parabola) was estimated which gave a higher value of the coefficient of determination. With the use of

Physico‐Chemical Characteristics of Citrus Seeds and Seed Oils from Pakistan

“…The annual seed oil production from local resources is about 0.8 MMT, which is mainly met through cottonseed, accounting for a 67% share, followed by canola (19.6%) and the remaining 13.4% principally from sunflower. Overall consumption of edible oils in Pakistan during recent years indicates a sizeable growth and per capita consumption in the country increasing from 15 kg in 2001 to 18.5 kg in 2006 [27,28]. The results of our study demonstrated that the oils from citrus seeds native to Pakistan, being a rich source of essential FAs and important tocopherols, have good potential for edible and industrial applications.…”

Effect of plant growth regulators on oil yield and biodiesel production of safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.)

“…It is a neglected oil seed crop in Pakistan such that during [2004][2005], the total area under cultivation was only 48 hectares (Anon, 2005). It has been used as source of dye, folk medicine and food but it has not got any significant consideration as oil seed crop (Shah et al, 2005). The major problems associated with cultivation of this crop are its mechanical harvesting which is quite laborious accompanied by low yields.…”

Diversity of Sunflower Insect Pollinators and Their Foraging Behavior Under Field Conditions

“…Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) is highly cross-pollinated and short duration crop grown twice a year in almost all parts of Pakistan (Shah et al, 2005). It is one of the important cultivated oil crops in the world after soybean, rapeseed and peanut with India the largest sunflower growing country in Asia (Anonymous, 2018;Gupta, 2011).…”