By Obiala Angel- Torit
National Minister of Agriculture and Food Security encouraged the population in Isohe Payam, Ikwoto County of Eastern Equatoria State to cultivate more large farms for more harvest.
Josephine Joseph Lagu tells the population in the area to upgrade from small scale to large scale that can support both domestic and commercial purposes.
“I am here as the Minister of Agriculture to tell my people here to cultivate more acres of land or more lands, in previous years you have been cultivating on two fedans and from now onwards, you should be cultivating five acres, so that the harvest from the three acres should be for home consumption and the two acres should be for sale and you cannot sell if you only cultivate two acres of land”, she encouraged.
The minister inspires the people to make use of the fertile and the sufficient rainfall in the region to cultivate crops like onions, tomatoes and potatoes rather than importing from the neighboring countries.
“We don’t need to import onions, tomatoes and potatoes that we can cultivate here, let us produce what we can because we have fertile land, we have sufficient rain fall, we have young energetic people here what do we lack nothing, the role of the ministry is to facilitate the farmers in giving extra agricultural inputs like seeds, modern tools, and we will be able to solicit funds for you we cannot do that for an individual” she says.
The National Minister of Agriculture and Food Security encourages farmers to form cooperative groups and unite for farming support.
Lagu says the government is unable to offer support to individual farmers but to cooperative that can be monitored and followed for sustainability.
She discloses National Ministry of Agriculture plans to organize and establish repair centers tractors as well as capacity building for farmers’ groups.
“What we are telling our farmers including those in Isohe is that you should organize yourselves into cooperative groups, unite, farmers groups, when you organize yourselves into groups the Ministry of Agriculture at the National level will be in position to assist you, if we give tractors to individuals, once spoiled, they may not be able to repair it again and put on road, but if we give to cooperatives we will be able to assist them to maintain the tractors, in fact we are planning to establish tractors centers at places where agricultural activities are taking place, and we can be able to offer capacity building to you when you are in a group, he explains.
Minister Lagu was talking at the Centenary celebration at St. Theresa Isohe Parish of the Catholic Diocese of Torit on Sunday.
Last week, Eastern Equatoria State governor Louise Lobong Lojore declared Fridays a cultivation day for all civil servants.