Sunflower Oilseed Processing and Marketing in the coastal region of Bangladesh

Objectives

• Establishment of two sunflower seed processing units with capacity to process wheat and paddy
• Establishing two community organizations (comprising natural resource dependent women and men) to manage the mills through two cooperatives

Background

Raynada union is located at the ShronkholaUpazilla of Bagerhat district. It is located nearby Sundarban. Farmers are facing freshwater crisis in dry season and they are choosing less water consuming crops like sunflower. The production and marketing chain for sunflower oil is not well developed yet and farmers are not getting proper benefit due to this. 

Target beneficiaries

A total of 200 poor persons (man and women) are beneficiaries of this project. They were selected on the basis of their dependence of forest resources from Sundarban. Through the project, they have been organized under two cooperatives to run to seed crushing mills in the two market places in the sub-district.

Indirectly, sunflower farmers will also be benefited as these mills will provide them service to produce clear oil from sunflower which is a pre-requisite of getting good price.

Outputs

• Two processing mills functioning and making profit sustainably
• Income increase of cooperative members

Accomplishments and challenges

Accomplishments

- Two mills are now under construction.

- Two cooperatives have been registered.

Challenges

- The mills will start producing at the end of 2014, and the venture will take at least a year or more to be functional as a business.

- The marketing chain for sunflower oil and other produce will have to be developed to ensure the projects sustainability, Prodipan is working on this issue currently.