Courtesy| word press.com

Farmers in semi-arid Greater Kapoeta are finding it difficult to cultivate crops and graze animals due a swath of thorny shrubs covering most parts of the area,  according to Eastern Equatoria state’s Agriculture Minister.

Ochalla Bosco Oringa said the shrub locally called ‘Lakido’, has covered almost the entire area and parts of neighboring Budi County.

“In local language it is called lakido, it is a thorny kind of shrub . This  thing (plant) has covered almost the whole area of Kapoeta even coming towards like the area Budi.”

He described the wild plant as dangerous the thorns can cause severe pain in humans due its poisonous nature.

Bosco said the shrubs are affecting the livelihoods of the local population in terms of rearing animals and clearing land for farming.

“It affects  the people negatively because even to carry domestic activities is difficult because it covers up the space, and if you want to penetrate through the forest definitely it is very hard.

“It affects the livelihood in the sense of rearing animals, and even farmers cutting is very dangerous. This plant is poisonous. Once it pierces you, it caused a very severer pain,” said Mr. Bosco

Ochalla added that the state government is engaging the UN food agencies, World WFP And FAO for intervention.

“We also involved some partners who can engage with the community in order to clear these species so that it can get disappeared and then open the land to the community for the people to engage.

“We have the World food Programme already on the ground in Kapoeta, we also have even FAO, they are also on the ground,” said the official

Meanwhile, he has cautioned the community against engaging directly with the plants without protective measures.

“We are advocating and creating awareness to the community on how to use this plant in the sense they should not engage directly without proper measures,” he added.