Commissioner Duk Guot says crop pests have destroyed farmlands last year, resulting in crop failure in the area.

Guot stated that the production of the sesame crop is in jeopardy after a series of frustrating harvests in the last seasons.

He is urging the national government and development partners to support farmers in order to prevent and combat pests.

“There is no medicine to combat sesame pests. We do not have plans this year to plant sesame because we do not have pesticides to combat the pest of sesame,” Guot told Eye Radio on Tuesday.

“The farmers will grow sorghum and millet and sunflower. As for the sesame, it will be frozen until the medicine for the sesame pestilence is brought,

“Yes, this white worm was discovered by the FAO and it was called the whitefly. It targets the sesame flower.”

South Sudan is ranked as the 66^th Sesame Seeds producer in the world, producing 204,068 tons of Sesame Seeds from an area of a harvest of 628,649 and grown at the household level.

Production of Sesame Seed in the country was reported to have increased in 2017 compared to 2018.

In the year 2020, the world production of sesame seeds was 7 million metric tons led by Sudan, Myanmar, and Tanzania.