There will be food crisis in Yei River County if agriculture does not improve this year, the commissioner of has warned.

Cosmas Bidali says the presence of refugees and other internally displaced people in the county will cause food shortage. The county is home to refugees from Congolese and CAR.

He has appealed to farmers to tilt more land and produce food locally to improve the economy.

“We want to see that agricultural sector in the country booms to provide economic alternatives to other sources of livelihood like petroleum so that we have alternative means of survival,” Mr Bidali said.

“People need to work very hard. We don’t need to look at the current situation and sing it as a song.  But we also have to play our part here. As a family, we need food. If you don’t work, you will have problems in the house.”

The commissioner also urged the state government to send tractors to the farming communities in the villages.

The national government distributed tractors to the states last month.