One of the farmers who have benefited from the PEML project in Iramba District is Winjika Songelaeli Mkumbo. She is a member of Jipe Moyo group in Ulemo village, Ulemo ward. Ms. Mkumbo has been a sunflower producer since 2008, but have ripped the benefits of producing this crop in 2016 when she harvested 10 bags of sunflower per acre instead of the usual 5. She said she used to cultivate 1 acre (using traditional ways), but decided to cultivate 4 acres (using best practices) after receiving training which was facilitate by the PEML project; the method included the use of improved seeds (record variety) instead of the local ones. Ms. Mkumbo said that she has decided to process the sunflower seeds and sell sunflower oil instead of selling the seeds because they a fetch a low price in the market. From the 40 bags of sunflower seeds, Ms. Mkumbo managed to obtain 1000lts of sunflower oil which has been sold for Tsh. 13,000/- for a gallon of 5lts. If managed to sell all the product, she expects to earn Tsh. 2,600,000/-; whereas, if it was sunflower seeds, she would have earned Tsh. 1,800,000/- (for the price of Tsh. 45,000/- per bag). Furthermore, from the byproducts, she obtained 2240 kgs of animal feeds (seed cake) which she sold for Tsh 280/- per kg hence earning an extra Tsh 627,200/-. Till the interview date, Ms. Mkumbo had already sold 140 gallons of 5lts; and she said that the money she has earned will be used for school fees and increase the capital for her shop. Due to the benefits she has acquired this year, she has planned to cultivate 8 acres of sunflower instead of 4acres (she will have to rent/hire the 4acres). Through her own testimony, Ms. Mkumbo has confessed to have benefitted from the program so far because her production as increased twofold in such a short time, hence reducing the cost of production per bag. To improve the production for sunflower small holder producers in Iramba, Ms. Mkumbo has recommended that the farmers should be empowered on the best sunflower production processes, especially on using improved seeds instead of local seeds which do not geminate well. Furthermore, the groups should be strengthened so as to improve their financial resources and capital.

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