COVID-19 preventive measures in South Sudan affect farmers in Aweil

Social distancing is not a problem for farmers in Aweil, but they face other challenges caused by restricted movements to prevent COVID-19.

EMMANUEL KELE/DENG MOU

As the Coronavirus spreads globally, farmers in the Aweil area of Northern Bahr-el-Ghazal are not exempted from the impact: preventive measures taken by the government make cultivating land difficult.

While social distancing may be easier to practice on a farm, far away from densely populated towns, COVID-19 affects everyone.

“These restrictions of movements are bad for me because agricultural materials such as seeds, fertilizers and insecticides come from Sudan,” says the 60-year-old farmer Garang Bol who owns seven feddans (slightly more than seven acres) of farmland in the northern part of Aweil town. “These materials are no longer arriving here due to the closure of the South Sudan-Sudan borders,” he explains.

Local authorities in Northern Bahr-el-Ghazal have recently established a COVID-19 Taskforce Committee to control and restrict movements, including the flow of commercial trucks across the border, and to conduct media awareness on the virus.

However, local authorities say that the transportation of vital commodities will not be subject to such restrictions.

“We have exempted essential goods. Otherwise, only a truck driver and his two assistants can enter the town,” says the Secretary General of the area, Dominic Kang Deng.

Bol started his agricultural farm in 2005, growing only tomatoes. Today he produces onions, green and red peppers, and cucumbers.

“I am planning to extend my farmland next year with another two feddans and start cultivating watermelons,” says Bol.” “My only challenge is the cost of fuel, which is very high.”

Mr. Bol supplies the Aweil main market and also sells his products to the neighboring towns of Wanyjok, Kuajok and Wau. His farm is providing a source of desperately needed incomes for other people as well.

“I borrow tomatoes from his cultivation and pay him back when I have sold them,” says a 50-year-woman, Ms. Aluet Yai, who collects more red goodies every day. “It has helped me a lot. I can now send my children to school and I am able to get food for them,” she says.

Ms. Yai has a message to other women.

“Instead of drinking alcohol because of the frustrating conditions at home, come to this farm, collect vegetables on loan, and once you have made a profit you pay Mr. Bol back.”

Abuk Dut, a 38-year-old fellow female farmer, has followed suit.

“I used to sell alcohol for my daily survival, but I am better off now, since I started selling tomatoes. Although I only initiated this business last year, I have already been able to build myself a small tukul (hut) to stay in.”

On his part, Mr. Bol, has no complaints. His business success has made it possible for him to send his two brothers to school, and one of them has finished his studies at the University of Khartoum (in Sudan) and got a job in Juba. Still, he has suggestions when it comes to what the government can do to help others prosper.

“They should construct a national refinery for our oil, because once the oil can be refined locally, fuel prices will drop, more people will afford to open businesses and vegetables will become cheaper. With better roads, we could even transport some of our produce to Juba and sell it there,” he says.