A joint visit by government and FAO to farms in Lakes State. (Photo: Courtesy).

Lakes State farmers are anticipating high yields across plantations supported by humanitarian agencies in the eight counties after abundant rain and relative peace despite floods that have not spared the area, an official said.

Rafael Bang Mayor, Chairperson of the Standing Specialized Committee on Agriculture and Animal Resources in Lakes, said a stable security situation and abundant rainfall in the area could propel fruitful harvests and alleviate poverty.

“We made a visit to all eight counties of Lakes State assessing the farms being supported by our government and UN  partners, and I am thankful to the state government because the security situation is stable, and that has allowed our people to farm this season,” he said.

He spoke to the media on Thursday following two weeks of agriculture and livestock assessment by the Agriculture and Animal Resources Committee of the state parliament and UN Food and Agriculture Organization (UN-FAO), which concluded in Yirol East County.

Mr. Mayor said he has observed flourishing fields of groundnuts and other crops across the rural areas, despite a number of setbacks facing the 50 farmer groups.

“I have witnessed it. This season, we have gone ahead a little bit with production of groundnuts and all other productions in Lakes State, although there are challenges.”

“We have gone ahead a little bit with production of groundnuts and all other productions in Lakes State, and the government of South Sudan should support agriculture, because in every country, agriculture is the backbone of economic growth in a certain country.”

Joseph Majoch, a traditional farmer, said while they lack modern agricultural machinery necessary for them to upgrade from subsistence to large-scale farming, they also find it difficult to adjust to ox-ploughs.

“The ox-plough agriculture is not going well, and these need us to have more traditional hoes to help the farms so that people in the farm can work well, or we get tractors that can help us,” he said.

“So many places need tractors to clear large extents of bushes, and we also need to be supported with plastic sheets,” Mujoch added.

On his part, Gabriel Makuach Agregy, Director General in the Ministry of Animal Resources, Fisheries, and Tourism, said there is a dire lack of fishing equipment, including nets and fishing boats.

“We went up to Awerial County, and in Awerial, we are concerned about lack of fishing equipment. They need fishing equipment and fishing boats so that they can go into the river to catch more fish,” he said.

According to him, the state government and humanitarian partners will meet to plan the distribution of fishing equipment.

The official further said floods in some parts of the state have submerged pasturelands, squeezing pastoralists into highlands where they distributed vaccines in anticipation of livestock diseases.

“We have seen severe floods displacing livestock from low land to high land, and with this movement of livestock, we are expecting more outbreaks, so earlier we supplied all the vaccines to all the counties.”

But Makuach said the cattle keepers have raised concerns about a shortage of animal vaccines and the need to train more health workers to administer the campaigns.

“We are going to sit down to plan in order to supply them with the request of the vaccines and also the drugs, and also some of the protection like gumboots, raincoats, and overalls,” he said.

“In an overview, all the livestock they have looked healthy. Some cases like rampant skin diseases, and also some cases like pp, and some of the cases like PPR, we have noticed some of the cases that have been reported. We are going to prepare earlier.”

The state chairperson of the Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (RRC), Bub Achiek, stated that the assessment visit to all the counties aimed at monitoring and supervising the agricultural program to improve food security and livelihoods.

“We have moved across counties in Lakes State to ensure that the project is supported by various humanitarian agencies in livelihoods and food security,” he said.

“The accountability for this program is the sole responsibility of my institution, and I have to make sure that the project has made an impact on the people and so that the little that we mobilize from humanitarian agencies doesn’t go unnoticed.”

“We are trying to talk to our people to embrace cultivating food for themselves so that they don’t depend too much on humanitarian agencies. This is a core of the mission to pass key messages such as making large-scale farming.”.

Meanwhile, Marco Makur, FAO Deputy Head of Field Office in Rumbek, said the agency and its implementing partners are supporting farmer associations in different parts of the state, including Yirol West and East.

“We are championing support for the people that have organized themselves as a group. We encourage also our farmers to organize themselves and register themselves in the ministry of cooperative and rural development.”

“We have supported those who have already organized themselves and are producing sorghum production, groundnuts, green grams, cassava production, and all these types of food that people use to sustain their livelihoods.”

Lakes Minister of Agriculture Poth Majak Daljang said the government and humanitarian organizations will address all the challenges that they identified in their assessment visits to 50 farmer groups, which began on 6th September, 2024.

“One of the achievements is that we have seen they have expanded, and this year in Lakes State, almost everyone has farmed, and you cannot pass anywhere and you do not see a large-scale farming.”

He said the major challenge facing the state is flooding in the lowlands like Rumbek East, some parts of Wulu, the northern part of Cueibet, Rumbek North, Rumbek Center, Yirol East, and Yirol West counties.