South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"

By Awan Achiek
The Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) on Thursday donated seeds and agricultural tools to 600 farmers in Bilinyang Settlement in Mangalla Payam of Central Equatoria State.
About 200 kilograms of cowpeas and sorghum seeds including 1,800 hoes and panga tools were handed over to the farmers.
Erdem Mutaf, the Turkish Ambassador to South Sudan said the donation aims to support local farmers to improve their agricultural productivity.
“This time we brought you 1 ton and 200 kilos of sorghum and maize seeds. Together with these seeds, we also brought agricultural tools,” Mutaf said during the donation ceremony.
He disclosed that each household would receive one set of tools to enable them plant food during the rainy season.
“This is the third time we brought to your agricultural seeds to increase your capacity to produce food and increase production to feed yourselves,” Mutaf said.
He said the assistance from the Turkish agency is a sign of the friendship and affection towards the South Sudanese people.
For his part, Paul Tombe, head chief of Bilinyang Settlement in Mangalla Payam welcomed the timely assistance, adding that the Turkish embassy has always supported them in the hour of need over the past years.
“When you said you would sleep hungry together with us, we saw you sleeping hungry together with us because the little food that you could not imagine bringing you brought it without fear,” Tombe said.
Tombe said the donation of the tools will improve the livelihoods of farmers in Bilinyang Settlement.
“Thank you so much. In our culture of Bari people, he who gives you food and denies you the hoe to dig is a witch. He doesn’t want you to live,” he said.
Nyagwa Tut, women representative in Bilinyang Settlement said the tools and seeds will help farmers who were unable to plant food due to the lack of equipment and seeds.
“We thank you for giving us seeds and agricultural tools; we will use these tools to produce our own food. We will use tools to produce maize, groundnuts and cassava,” she said.
Established in 1992, the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) are responsible for implementing Turkiye’s developmental cooperation policies overseas.
TIKA carries out development cooperation activities in 170 countries via its 58 program coordination offices in 56 countries across five continents.