Agricultural show underway in Warrap State

The Warrap State agriculture and animal resources ministries, with support from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation (FAO), on Wednesday, commenced a two-day agricultural show to exhibit produce and livestock at the Kuajok cultural theatre.
The show which exhibits agricultural produce from six counties of Warrap State will run through Thursday and aims to encourage farmers to embrace best practices and sensitize them about the economic importance of their trade.
The state’s acting governor, Deborah Uduel Okech, while opening the show encouraged the farmers to embrace and apply new methods to improve their lives.
“As the government of Warrap State, we are happy and thankful to the partners who supported the ministries of agriculture and animal resources to conduct the exhibition,” Deputy Governor Uduel said. “Warrap State is blessed with livestock and arable land and this is very important because all our lives depend on livestock, but we need to change from keeping livestock for prestige and transformed our lives in terms of milk and meat.”
Adeng Kachuol, a member of the farmers union in Tonj South, said they brought a lot of agricultural products and the show will help them find markets for their produce which in turn will encourage other farmers to improve and increase productivity.
“We brought so many things like groundnuts, sorghum, sesame, rice and vegetables like eggplants, dry and fresh okra and sukumawiki (collard greens) from Tonj South as samples and we want to let our community know what we have been doing,” Adeng said. “The purpose of bringing all these is to improve agricultural activities and show our communities that with proper efforts, we can move forward.”
A livestock farmer, Athiang Bol, said he went to the agricultural show to learn how to better look after his animals and prepare hay for them in the dry season.
“I came to see how animals can be kept for human benefit and how to care for cows, goats, and sheep,” Bol said. “Our animals do not have enough food during the dry spell and how to preserve grass or hay for them is our challenge. So, it is good to share ideas with leaders on how to feed animals and help improve our lives.”
Vegetable farmer John Madut said, “I have cultivated sukamawiki, okra, sweet potatoes, sesame, and groundnuts to help our people eradicate hunger and I appreciate the government and the NGOs for sharing this event with us because development starts from human health.”