The Warrap State ministry of agriculture has been distributing agricultural inputs before the start of the farming season and on Tuesday revealed that it is going to introduce the cultivation of rice in the state.
Peter Madut Amet, the state’s director-general for agriculture told Radio Tamazuj that his ministry, in collaboration with partners, has distributed agricultural inputs across the six counties of the state for the project.
“We are doing some activities in the ministry of agriculture for this season and one of them is the distribution of farm inputs which started in the second week of April and is ongoing,” he said. “We have distributed 1,122 assorted hand tools and ox-plows, 1,633 50 kg bags of groundnut seeds, and 268 50 kg bags of sorghum seeds of the short variety (gadam aman).”
“The ministry has distributed to 8,366 assorted hands tools like water cans and 208 bicycles for agriculture extension workers and top farmers to all the counties to facilitate their movement,” he added.
Madut also said that his ministry is implementing the Emergency Livelihood Response Program (ELRP), an FAO program that was executed by NGOs in the past.
“ELRP which used to be implemented by NGOs was given to the state agriculture ministry this year. So, the modality has changed now, and together with FAO, we have targeted 602 metric tons of assorted seed crops and vegetables seed to be distributed to 500 households,” he said.
The director-general said the state had received meteorological equipment that will help his ministry guide farmers.
“We received 7 rain gauges and 1 weather reading machine from FAO and World Vision this month and facilitators will come from Juba next week to train our technicians on how they are operated. After the training, they will be installed in six counties and Kuajok FM radio will be used to share information with farmers,” he said.
Madut revealed that Warrap State, after experiencing flooding last year, intends to introduce rice cultivation.
“We also want to pilot rice production in Warrap State. We have already communicated with our counterpart ministry of agriculture in Aweil and they promised to give us seeds and after I receive them, I will immediately call our partners for implementation,” he said.
Meanwhile, Marco Agoor Malang, the Tonj South County commissioner, confirmed that they received the inputs and that the communities are ready to cultivate.
“The security situation is calm and communities are busy preparing the farming lands across the county. The only fear is that there might be floods this year,” he said. “FAO and other NGOs distributed ox-plows and some seeds but not for everyone.”