Central Equatoria Government Bans Tobacco Growing
The Central Equatoria State government has banned the growing of tobacco to protect the soil for food production. 16 July 2012 A family at their maize farm in Central Equatoria State. [File | FAO] By Waakhe Simon Wudu JUBA, 16 July 2012 [Gurtong] -The State Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Michael Roberto Kenyi says that tobacco consumes more soil nutrients due to the nature of its green and wide leaves compared to other crops like maize and cassava. “We have banned the growing of tobacco as it is a heavy consumer of soil nutrients”, said Kenyi. Yei County in Central Equatoria State is famous for tobacco growing and used to host the National Tobacco Company. Kenyi said the government policy is to prioritise the growth of food as opposed to cash crops to address food insecurity in country. “Tobacco deprives many members of the family from benefitting as it is not consumed by women and children”, he said. Kenyi said the ban was reached at after he presented a memo articulating the need to boost the government policy on agriculture and why tobacco growing should be discouraged. The United Nations recently warned that at least two million people in the country are food insecure and called for more policies to boost food production. Posted in: Home, Governance -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "South Sudan Info - The Kob" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
