A group of farmers supported by WFP in collaboration with ACTED are now facing difficulties in protecting their products form birds in Pariack village of Bor as flooding escalates in the state.
Three hundred and fifty farmers said their products in the farms are not progressing well from birds because the floods has made it difficult for them to be able to reach their farms earlier before birds start eating them.
Farmers’ chairperson Jacob Makol Agau said it is a disaster for the people of Bor because the flooding is not giving them enough time to do their work smoothly.
He said they are also facing challenges of insecurity which is not enabling them to put shelters and stay near their farms.
“We fear because there is insecurity, if there was no insecurity we would have come and put our shelters around, now days we normally go home and sleep there in the morning we come and watch our farm with this situation of floods it’s very difficult to reach the farm on time”.
Makol appreciated WFP and ACTED for the great support they are giving the group of farmers despite the flooding.
He asked humanitarians to also think of how they can bring some machines like tractors that can give them upper hand to produce more food to the state and the country at large.
“In the first place we would like to thank the humanitarian agencies who are supporting us like ACTED and WFP, the little they are giving us here in the product has you are seeing, but we would like to say work us hand will not go far I want to say, if the humanitarian agencies have power let them help us with machines, because the work you have seen using hands, if it was machines I think we would have supply other people with food I want the humanitarian to help us with machines so that can work to help others”.
WFP representative Chol Gabriele stated that WFP in partnership with ACTED have some project which they are doing to insure that farmers in villages are able to do something despite the challenge of flooding.
He said in Marial Agrubal area they have been training local farmers on how they should plant before they go to their farms.
“This side is one of the projects WFP as part of a transfer modality to local community here, this side is selected as a training side is called a demur poll, so this is where the local farmers who are identifies as beneficiaries of FFA come and have a training acquired some skills, then they go and do in their farms and their respective home state, one of the side has varieties of the vegetable you can see around here Tomatoes, you can see eggs plan, Okra and others this is a field where they little skills that they are new to then they do it in their farms”.
Gabriel noted that ACTED is a cooperating partner which is implementing the WFP FFA activities in Bor South.
The program manager for ACTED Gatmai Duwar maintained that, the demure plot was established by ACTED in 2021 in order for those beneficiaries that are selected.
He said they have vegetable production to show them how to use modern way of farming and local ways of controlling pest and diseases.
“We normally give skills, this is one of the pillars which we call pillar one and what we normally do here that is one of the pillar which is vegetable production where we engage beneficiaries to produce vegetables for themselves and at the same point we normally set up what we call nursery bed, this nursery beds we tell them that the access seedling has to be taken to their own individual vegetable farms at home, but this only a practical side where we show them how to use modern way of farming as well as a local ways of reducing pest diseases in crop-productions.
The famers spoke during the visiting of journalists to farms in Pariak area on 8, October 2021 in Bor South to see how farmers work during the flooding in Bor.