Anglican Church buys new sunflower oil extractor

ACK Diocese of Embu Bishop Rev David Muriithi inspects a sunflower oil extracting machine bought by the development arm of the church at Macumo station, Embu East. He urged farmers to increase production of the crop. BY JOSEPH MUCHIRI/STANDARD

Sunflower farming in the county has received a boost after the Anglican Church of Kenya purchased a machine to extract oil from the crop.

The machine installed at Anglican Development Services (ADS) of Mt Kenya East, Macumo Station, cost Sh700,000 and has the capacity to process 200kg of sunflower per hour. The machine replaces an older one that processed 50kg daily.

To upgrade sunflower farming, the ADS will supply certified high-yielding seeds at Sh330 per kilo and then buy the produce from farmers after the harvest.

An acre requires 2kg of the 8898 seed variety and on harvesting after three months, a farmer can expect to earn a profit of about Sh65,000.

Speaking when he launched the machine, ACK Diocese of Embu Bishop David Muriithi urged farmers to plant more sunflowers,

And ADS Macumo co-ordinator Sella Thiaka said they had trained locals on sunflower farming and would purchase a kilo of sunflower seeds from them at Sh30.

Ms Thiaka said the older oil extractor was unable to handle the large volume of sunflower produced by farmers in the region.

On marketing, Ms Thiaka said they had outlets in all their centres and dioceses.

"We are unable to meet the demand for the oil and the seed cake that is used as livestock food. We are targeting an extra 300 farmers in Embu and a bigger number from neighbouring counties," she said.