Onion from a farm Ruweng belonging to a group of farmers known as Young farmers Association in Abiemnhom - Courtesy

A group of farmers in the Ruweng Administrative area has said their farm produce is getting spoiled due to inaccessibility to the market.

The group known as Young Farmers Association in Abiemnom last week supplied about ten tons of mangoes to the market.

This week, the group says they have over ten tons of organic onions for sale in the neighboring areas including Wau.

The association which contains over 50 farmers have managed to cultivate about 98 feddans of various farm products this season.

Among the challenges include, bad roads, insecurity, accessibility to market, high taxations leaving them operating at loss, high transportation cost among others.

Bol Dau Kuol, the Project Manager of Young Farmers Association in Abiemnom spoke to Eye Radio via phone from Abiemnom on Monday saying access to bigger markets like Juba is among some of the challenges they group is facing.

“The major challenge we are facing, first we have no market as you can see we produce quantity but they are not accessing the market like Juba and other places in South Sudan, we are not reaching there,” Dau told Eye Radio on Monday.

“The other challenge we are facing is insecurity. Most of the farmers have been having that [fear], they have been scared because of insecurity, sometimes we stop farming, and sometimes we take break because of insecurity.

“The road connection is also another factor especially during the rainy season our goods always go to waste. Like 70% of what we produce goes to waste due to lack of roads.”

According to the group, they are earning about 200,000 pounds in a day of which 40,000 pounds goes for taxation and other costs.

Established in 2006, Young Farmers Association in Abiemnom produces a variety of organic vegetables and fruits such as egg plants, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, onions, oranges, lemons, bananas, mangoes among others.

Dau, however, is appealing to well-wishers to help them with tractors in order to transform from a labor base to mechanized farming.

“The issue with roads, we hope the government might be in a position to do that better. But as farmers, we need tractors so that we expand the production. We are tired of using our hands. We need to do large scale agriculture then we might need some vehicle for transportation to the market,” said Dau.

“Most of the markets are 5-6 hours from Abiemnom to Wau is 5-6 hours. When we are using this old vehicle, it breaks down and delays our journey and we also need pesticides because we have a lot of pests which destroy our vegetables and fruits.”