State agriculture minister says partners, including the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (UNFAO), must start buying seeds from local producers instead of importing them

By Makur Adut

Lakes State Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Environment, Poth Majak Daljang, has banned the distribution of imported seeds by the partners.

Majak said the partners, including the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (UNFAO), must start buying seeds from the local producers instead of importing them from outside the country.

 “At first, we were campaigning that we need all our partners to purchase our local seeds, but this has not been done. This year, I have suspended the distribution of foreign seeds,” he said.

The minister added that those imported seeds do not go to the beneficiaries, who are the farmers in the community, and that they have been telling FAO to buy seeds from the local farmers.

“We held a meeting with the governor and UNFAO, then we resolved to buy local seeds from our own local farmers,” Majak explained.

He said he was asked how much 1 kg of sorghum, maize, and groundnuts cost in the local market.

“Our local farmers are selling with a basin. They are not using kilograms. But, they are using basins and cups,” he said. “When you are trading with an international like FAO, you need to operate through standards. But for us, we don’t have a weighing scale to measure in kilograms.”

The minister said the prices in the market also vary as some producers sell one basin of groundnuts at SSP 20,000, SSP 30, 000 and others sell at SSP 50,000.

“We want to practice commercial farming. And this calls for meeting certain standards”, he said.

“We want next time, all our local farmers. They must be using a weighing scale for doing measurements. This is how we can benefit from our local products here. We are dealing with market linkages. We need training on this, such that our products are unified,” Majak said.

“We don’t want to be cheated, and we also don’t want to cheat in this trading, and we need a serious training on this.”

Mark Manyang Ater, farmer and manager of the Warpiu Family Farm and investment in Lakes State, said they have welcomed the decision made by the Minister of Agriculture.

He said most of the seeds often distributed by the NGOs are not functional, and they often arrive late.

 He said some of the seeds do not respond to the climatic conditions in the area, adding that some of the seed varieties are very different from their local seeds.

“I encourage our local farmers to embrace local seeds. Seeds preserved naturally from this place, such as of groundnuts, our dura, okra and other seed varieties, can be very helpful, more than waiting for other seeds that are imported,” he said.