Map of Western Equatoria State. | Courtesy.

A lawmaker representing Western Equatoria in the national parliament said tons of maize and rice produced in Yambio and Nzara counties risk going to waste due to inaccessibility to the market.

Hon. Anthony Lino Makana said farmers in the two areas have produced an impressive three million metric tons of food during this farming season.

Lino, however, said the farm products stand high chances of decay due to inadequate storage infrastructures, particularly a lack of passable roads to access market for the produce.

“The government, in the years that passed, has been encouraging our people to farm to address the issue of hunger in South Sudan. It is true that now, in Western Equatoria, we have a substantial amount of food now,” he said.

“In the Yambio and Nzara constituencies, the farmers have 3 million metric tons of food and this food, if it were to be brought to Juba. The maize is 2 million metric tons and then we have 450,000 metric tons of Rice.”

The national lawmaker said there are neither warehouses nor enough standard storage facilities to preserve the quantity of the produce.

“We have food here but we don’t have the market for it locally there. The market is here in Juba and the challenge is the roads are not very bad because of the rain and the flood that affected most of the state.”

“There is a problem with transport and the farmers also face some challenges due to storage in which food can get spoiled.”

He said the food was produced across farmlands stretching at 20 25 acres. Lino’s has directed his appeal to the Ministry of Agriculture to take immediate action and intervene

In addition, he encouraged NGOs involved in farming assistance to buy the maize grains from local farmers instead of importing food from outside the country.

“I am appealing to the government and particularly, the ministry of agriculture to look into this issue so that the food can be addressed because once the food arrives in Juba, the prices of food will drop.”

“So, my appeal is also to NGOs who are helping in farming. They should also come in instead of bringing food from outside they can buy from the farmers here.”

In September 2024, the Commissioner of Ezo County in Western Equatoria appealed for the rehabilitation of a 100-mile highway connecting the area with Yambio to enable them to transport their product to the markets.

Farmers in Magwi County in Eastern Equatoria State also called on the government to rehabilitate a collapsed bridge and its perilous road linking the area to the Juba-Nimule highway to enable them to transport tons of farm produce to the market.

Ochan Walter Magwi, the head of farmers union in the fertile area near the Ugandan border said since the Amee Bridge crumbled, they have been left with no convenient route to take their yields to the capital.

The Amee Bridge collapsed in 2022 and has since been impassable – cutting off Magwi farmers from the Juba Nimule Highway and forcing them to take the long, costly and perilous Torit-Juba road.

South Sudan remains one of the countries with the most underdeveloped road networks in the world, according to the World Bank.

The world finance organization states that most interstate roads consist of badly or non-maintained dirt roads, with only 300km of sealed roads and one sealed international highway linking Juba to Uganda.

This is despite the government’s allocation of a huge volume of crude oil to Chinese companies to build roads in 2019.

South Sudan is grappling with severe inflation after the Sudan war damaged facilities transporting the country’s crude oil to the Red Sea, depriving the country of its crucial revenue generator.

This has left the pound currency weakened against the US dollar, and civil servants and members of the organized forces have not been paid for nearly 10 months.

The country has topped the list of countries worst hit by food inflation making it the only with the most expensive food prices globally, according to a World Bank report.

The Food Security Update for this year indicates that food prices in South Sudan stands at an inflation rate of 164 per cent, followed by Zimbabwe at 48 per cent, Liberia at (16%), Viet Nam (11%), and Haiti is fifth (at 11%).