07 Jan 2025

At the dusk of 2024 the management of KCM Farm in Metsimotlhabe transited into the New Year by conducting a farmers’ workshop on the production of safflower.

One of the pioneer farmers of safflower crop locally, KCM Farm director, Ms Sarah Mosarwa said safflower was a multi-purpose cash-crop that could be used to produce cooking oil, cosmetics, food supplements, tea, vegetable, seeds, seedcake, fodder among others.

She said safflower was a perennial plant that was suitable for semi-arid climate like Botswana’s and it required less monitoring and less water, free from pests and insects, required no manure nor pesticides like most vegetables.

Ms Mosarwa described safflower as a cash-crop capable of bagging in more money from its burgeoning stages as vegetable for six weeks, two months as petals that could be collected to be used as a dietary supplementary or for medicinal purposes, three months as a seed processed into cooking oil, making cosmetics or could be sold as a seed.

The cosmetics are currently welcome by most Batswana who have turned into regular clienteles, said Ms Mosarwa.

She said after experiencing a market enervation on the vegetables, she shifted her focus to safflower in 2021 after learning about it from the area extension officer.

Ms Mosarwa said they ordered their first seeds from Australia in 2021 and had multiplied them to the extent that they were now supplying local farmers.

She said they had found an appetising safflower market in the USA where there was a high demand for the seed and petals.

The intention was not to sell raw material to the Americans,  but had to do so, in order to make capital to invest on buying bigger and effective machines that could enable farmers to produce finished products such as cooking oil, said Ms Mosarwa.

She said they have had several workshops with hope to recruit more local farmers to develop interest among farmers in safflower farming, to enhance meeting local and export demand.

Ms Mosarwa said research conducted in 2023 showed that Botswana imported edible oils in value to the tune of P709 million, an indication that the market for safflower was so gigantic to convert Batswana farmers into tycoons.

Former Mmopane/Lentsweletau now Mmopane/Lephephe constituency MP, Ms Nnaniki Makwinja also talked about the profits that one could enjoy from  safflower.

Ms Makwinja, who is also a member of Kweneng North Cooperative and also a diehard advocate for safflower production, labelled safflower as Botswana’s second diamond.

She said the intention was to benefit more from safflower and lure more farmers to make a living from it for the market was broad.

“Everyone can make money from safflower. Even if you do not have a field you can use a backyard to grow safflower and make money by selling the seeds or make your own cooking oil. 

A kilogram of safflower seeds is sold at P350 whereas a kilogram of the petals goes for P1 300,” said Ms Makwinja. ENDS