Northern Bahr al Ghazal State faces a shortage of tractors and lacks spare parts, according to a local official who predicts that this will likely result in failure to meet the country’s hunger-free target for 2014.

Speaking to Radio Tamazuj, the Aweil East County Agriculture Director Mareng Bol said that the state agriculture ministry lacks enough tractors to enable access for all farmers’ groups.

The official pointed to a shortage of spare parts, lack of trained technicians, poor roads to farms and inaccessibility of many fields and gardens owing to drainage canals and trenches.

Akot Ajiith Akuei, the deputy head of the chamber of commerce for Aweil East County, pointed out that even without tractors there are some crops that do not need tractors like sesame and groundnut.

He requested, however, that the national and the state government provide pesticides to farmers. He urged the entire government to make farming the top priority.

“It's not good for an independent country to depend on foreign countries in getting food like Uganda, Kenya, Sudan and others,” he said.

In a related development, a delegation from the national agriculture ministry in Juba paid a visit to a local group of farmers to discuss the cultivation this year. Their aims were to share ideas with the local farmers on how to improve the agriculture systems in the country.

Agriculture is a stated priority of the national and state governments. On Tuesday the state council of ministers issued a decree making every Friday until September a public holiday to encourage even government employees to go cultivate.

File photo: A tractor in Gerger, Upper Nile State (Radio Tamazuj)