By Hou Akot Hou
Northern Bahr el Ghazal State (NBGs) Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry concluded a 7-day assessment to ascertain the impact of climatic change on farming.
Recently, the National Ministry of Agriculture dispatched a team who combined with the state counterparts and partners to ascertain the level of destruction caused by drought in the state.
Northern Bahr Ghazal’s Agriculture Ministry director, Chan Kuach disclosed to the media that they witnessed severe impact of drought in most parts of the counties.
He said they jointly with the team from Juba and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), assessed the climatic condition and learned a catastrophic situation on the ground.
Kuach said that the most affected areas include Aweil North and West counties.
“Aweil North and Aweil West counties are much incapacitated. People cultivated, but the crops withered. Many months have passed since the rain started and crops got damaged,” he said.
He said the only much better counties are Aweil South and Central.
Mr. Kuach, however, noted that some of the farmers in Aweil South and Centre counties have planted groundnuts, which he hopes will do well.
“I want to appeal to our people to not get discouraged, though the production will be poor next year,” he counseled.
“We do engage the partners to provide the crops that can do well during the year of short rainfall, and this can salvage the situation greatly,” Kuach added.
The ministry’s director said that plans are underway to do another assessment next year to see the level of reaping.
Meanwhile, heavy downpours (rain) had occurred on Monday in most parts of the state, it is hoped that though drought has destroyed most of the crops, hunger will be alleviated due to the little harvest that will be gained from the crops.