How to improve the oil yield of a sunflower crop
Annual global production of sunflower oil is about 18 million tons. As it utilises soil nutrients efficiently due to its deep roots, the crop is usually grown in dryland systems. South Africa’s sunflower seed production was 862 000t in 2018, according to the Crop Estimates Committee.
Sunflower is produced mostly for its oil. Oil concentration, expressed as a percentage of seed dry mass, generally determines the industrial yield of the crop. In some countries, each percentage point that oil content increases between 40% and 45% earns a 2% price premium; in contrast, buyers demand a 2% price discount for each percentage point decrease in oil content between 40% and 38%, and a larger penalty as oil percentage decreases further. Both seed yield and oil percentage are
