Magwi County farmers make losses out of glut

Farming communities in Magwi County are counting losses brought about by bad roads that make markets inaccessible.

The affected farmers are mainly from the villages of Obbo, Palwa, Lobone, Pogee, Parajok Owiny Ki Bul Kichenga, and Lomrati.

They have lost their produce and perishable commodities that were harvested in the first season after the heavy rains cut them off from access to the main road leading to Juba.

According to Luka Ochimo, chairperson of the Obbo community in Obbo Payam, the farmers in the area have produced and harvested enough, and the area has seen high production.

However, he said all this went to waste after some of the crops got rotten in stores due to a lack of buyers.

“Since markets are the primary medium for farmers to exchange their produce for money, the poor road connectivity has lowered farmers’ ability to sell their produce directly from the stores,” Ochimo said.

He was speaking to the area commissioner who visited Obbo Payam over the weekend.

In a statement seen by The City Review from the Eastern Equatoria State press unit yesterday, most farmers in the area have no alternative but to sell their products unless their roads are rehabilitated.

Lucia Aryemo, a mother of four children, said they had harvested several bags of maize last season but the family members could not sell them because there was no alternative to transporting more than 10 bags of maize to Torit.

She appealed to the government and well-wishers to rescue the situation by opening roads for them so that they could access markets and health centres.

Magwi County Commissioner David Otto Remson, who went to the ground, said that food supply is not a problem in the area.

He said that the farmers in the area are rich in food production, and he called on the government, UN agencies, and other development partners to join hands and construct the feeder roads in the area.