Local residents and officials in the border town of Pochalla in the Greater Pibor Administrative Area (GPAA) have warned of looming hunger amidst crop failure because the area received lower than the average rainfall since the beginning of the year.
Several farmers told Radio Tamazuj that the drought have left them hopeless with many resorting to fishing.
“In Pochalla, we should be harvesting our crops now as we prepare for the second planting season in August and September. However, this is not the case. Our crops are withering with no harvest from my two-feddan maize and groundnut farm,” said one local who identified himself as Othow.
He urged intervention. “With anticipated flooding during our planting season, hunger is looming. So we need to be assisted with fishing nets and seeds because the ones we had, have been wasted during the first planting season.”
Another farmer, Jay Ojari Adhura, said he was eyeing for the second planting season.
“We started planting in March but there were no rains from May, so our crops are drying up. We do not expect any harvest this season,” he stated. “If we are supported with seeds and rains improve, the second season is where our hope lies or else we face hunger. The few crops standing in the field are being destroyed by birds because even birds have no grass to eat in the bush so they depend on the little we have in the farms.”
Gideon Omot, acting Pochalla South County commissioner, also decried the looming hunger and said there was nothing the county could do to avert the disaster.
“The situation is very bad. Crops have dried because of no rains since March. Families are going hungry with only those well off economically stocking up their stores from Ethiopia because roads are still passable,” he said. “Usually roads connecting us to Ethiopia should have been impassable by now if there were rains. Lack of seeds and invasion by birds are another problem. So, a combination of these factors are pushing the county into hunger and we do not have any capacity to assist.”
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