Sunflower Cultivation as a Business Idea

Ukraine — one of the world's leaders in sunflower production, so the desire of farmers and agricultural enterprises to cultivate it is fully justified. In this material, we will consider the basic principles of growing this crop as a subject for running a successful business.

General Information

This is undoubtedly a profitable business. After all, with proper care, farmers manage to harvest up to 40 centners of seeds per hectare from quality land. Among all oilseed crops, sunflower is still considered the most profitable. If you look at the supply-demand balance, studying the trading platform NM Global, you can confidently say there is constant demand for this crop.

Seed Material

Regardless of the farmer's experience, the optimal choice will be hybrid seeds. In fact, it is practically impossible to find non-hybrid varieties today. Hybrids develop uniformly, which is important for harvest and crop management. Based on their maturation time, all hybrid sunflowers can be conditionally divided into four key groups:

• early-maturing;
• medium-early;
• medium-maturing;
• medium-late.

Plants require up to four months for vegetation, so it is important to consider planting and harvesting dates.

Fertilization and Protection

Fertilizers and plant protection products are the key to a successful harvest. For sunflower, these factors are much more important than for cereals or other crops. The need for mineral and organic fertilizers is hard to overestimate. Only nitrogen is consumed at a rate of no less than 4 kilograms per centner of product. Weed and pest control is carried out throughout the entire growth period. However, if herbicides are applied, this is done once, when the stems reach a height of half a meter.

Planning

It is important to understand that after planting sunflower on a specific plot of land, you should forget about replanting this oilseed crop for the next five to six years. Optimal predecessors and successors are legumes and cereals. However, after harvesting sunflower, only fertilizer application is carried out in autumn, and no winter crops should be planted. Moreover, the next crop will be only forage cereals.

Finances and Losses

Be prepared for losses in nearly every stage of crop development. The idea that I will buy sunflower and earn significantly more than my expenses by autumn is mistaken. When talking about production scale, losses of up to three centners per hectare are allowed. Minimizing potential losses is possible through:

• improving care for stems (tillage, seed treatment);
• regular watering;
• consistent fertilizer application;
• timely harvest.

Follow the rules and recommendations of specialists. Cooperation with an experienced agronomist will pay off fully.