UN-FAO to provide sprayer aircraft to Renk farmers
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization is due to charter a sprayer plane to Upper Nile State on October 17 to help famers in Renk County combat pests destroying their crops.
Morris Felix, the Protection Manager at UN-FAO in South Sudan made the statement a day after farmers in the fertile region urged the agency to expedite its pledge to help them in fighting crop pests.
On October 8, Renk Farmers Union chairperson, Nyok Deng Ayiik revealed that the UN food agency had previously promised to support them in pest control this season.
The agricultural businessmen, who anticipate a 90 percent success rate for this farming season, equally express worries over what they believe is a serious threats posed by pests.
But Mr. Felix has assured the farmers that it acquired the plane which has been given clearance from Juba and will head to the area to address the pest menace.
He said the aircraft will be in the country on 17th October and it will be sent to the area upon receiving the maps and Coordinates for targeted location.
“We already communicated through our field office there to ask the community, the county agriculture department in Renk, to map up the areas, the roosted areas for the quelea birds,” he said.
“The plane will be here on day 17 according to the clearance that we received from the government. Let them not worry about it.”
“We are just waiting for the mapping with the GPS coordinates for the roosted areas of the the killer birds and the plane can go do the spraying. We already received the clearance for the plane.”
Farmers in Renk have previously complained about lack of funding for food production from the Agricultural Bank of South Sudan amid high fuel price resulting from dire inflation.
The leadership of the Agricultural Bank previously visited Renk and promised funding to farmers for the 2024 season.
But in July, farmers in the area said they were unable to cultivate nearly a million acres of land and the swathes of land prepared for plantation ended up being left to fallow because of the unfulfilled funding pledges.
