One of maize stores visited by the commissioner of Magwi County - courtesy

Magwi County farmers are counting losses as their produce are rotting in stores due to Poor road infrastructure linking area of production and the market.

This is according to Magwi County commissioner Otto David Remission.

Otto says Magwi farmers have huge agricultural potential, but they suffer crop losses due to poor or non-existent storage and drying facilities, and lack of transport.

He stated that farmers in Lobone, Obbo, Pogee, Pajok and Owiny-Ki-bul area of Magwi cannot deliver their produce to the markets on time due to impassable roads.

During a visit to Obbo Payam yesterday, commissioner Otto says about 8 tons of maize grain in a store there has gone to waste already.

He added that in the two out of five stores he visited in Obbo Payam, there are over 100 tons of maize grains.

“The food items that are already wasted is 8 tons from one of the stores, actually we have five stores, out of the five stores we did not visit them all but I visited one store,” said Otto.

“We are having 8 tons which are already damaged. The one which was not well handled and stored on the floor, we don’t know the exact amount. I have visited only two stores, one of the stores has 48 tons and the other has 58 tons of maize.”

Otto has appealed to the state and national government to give special attention to Magwi County.

“I am appealing to the government of South Sudan as my county is a green belt area, the county is also a producing area to the nation. I need support and I need a road to my communities,” Otto said.

“This food getting damaged is for the whole community and the whole citizen.

“My community is actually working hard to make sure that we should not have hunger in the state and the whole country.”

For his part Luka Otim, a farmer in Obbo says lack of good roads has been a challenge to them.

“We have maize but the problem is there are no roads, the roads are as bad as the roads of animals,” Otim said.