A prominent farmer in Upper Nile State’s Renk County has expressed dissatisfaction with the inability of the Plant Protection Administration to combat agricultural pests.
Kiir Agor Nyok told Radio Tamazuj that the efforts to combat the pests had failed despite FAO bringing in a special plane.
“The Ministry of Agriculture has failed because the complaints raised about the pests started in August because of swarms of birds in Melut, Renk Wadakona, Paloch and other areas. There was no quick response to rescue the crops,” he said.
“The aircraft brought to spray pests has been grounded at the Paloch airport. The National Ministry of Agriculture has not come out clearly to inform the farmers about the issue,” he added.
Nyok pointed out that birds destroyed vast areas of crops after the pesticides were brought in. He said the matter was due to the lack of coordination between the Federal and the State ministries and the Farmers’ Union.
The farmer held the Federal Ministry of Agriculture responsible for the damage to the crops due to the delay in the control operations that were reported early.
The Director of Agriculture in Melut County, Guot Mayiik, confirmed that there was a problem with a spray. He added that the plane flew over one of the forests with a flock of birds to no avail.
After the spraying, we sent a team of farmers and employees to verify the effectiveness but it became clear that it did not kill a single bird, he said.
The Director of Agriculture revealed that farmers were using traditional methods to combat the birds.
Upper Nile State Agriculture Minister Yedjuok Edward acknowledged that there was a shortcoming in the coordination between the Federal Plant Protection Administration and FAO in selecting the pesticides that were sent to Renk, accompanied by a team of technicians.
“The aircraft started spraying in Melut, Paloch and southern Renk, but the plant protection unit in Juba said the pesticide used was not the right one. It was a mistake from their side; they were supposed to check the pesticide before the spraying. The process has stopped because of the lack of coordination between the state and the plants protection department in Juba and FAO,” he said.
The minister revealed that the control operations had stopped, until a new spray is brought in.