Retired Archbishop Deng Bul reaps big from farming

By Awan Achiek

Retired Archbishop of the Episcopal Church of Sudan and South Sudan, Dr. Daniel Deng Bul has settled into farming – to sustain his family in a bid to contribute towards achieving sustainable food security in the country.

On a weekly basis, Deng visits his farm at South of Nesitu about 500 kilometers from Sherikat, suburb of Juba.

Deng grows mainly sorghum, millet and okra in his 20 feddan, farmland.

The former bishop encouraged everybody to work hard to produce their own food to address food security.

“So that is part of my campaign, that we need to work together, we need to produce our own food, However small the place you want to cultivate, provided that you have at least something you produce for yourself.

The 75-year-old former archbishop, who embarked on farming in 1995, revealed that he employs between 90 and 100 laborers at his farm.

Dawn Newspaper reporter, Awan Achiek sat down with the retired archbishop Dr. Daniel Deng Bul to speak about his farming business.

Excerpts of the interview are below.

Question: I would like you to start by telling us how you first got interested in farming?

Answer: Well, for me, I’m Archbishop Daniel Deng. I’m a former retired Archbishop. I’ve been leading the church, I’ve been in the church for almost 25 years.

And since I came to the church, I have been interested in agriculture. The interest was that it was part of the Bible. Because if you look at the Bible, God says, if you want to be somebody, you must work hard.

You work hard to sweat, so that you can eat with the sweat of your body. So what I am doing is part of the Bible, what the Bible teaches us to do. So my interest is that I’m a Christian, and the Bible wants us to work.

We need to work hard, because it’s part of our faith. And when it is part of our faith, He said, you go and till the land. You have to till the land, because it’s part of the promise God has given for a human being. For you to stay here on earth.

So my interest first is part of my faith. It is part of my goal that God has commanded me, and another person who is a Christian, that I should not eat a free thing.

I should eat what I have to do with my own hand. Because what you eat with your own hand is always blessed. So I feel it is a blessing of God to give your health, so that you are able to do your physical needs for food security.

That’s number one. Number two, what inspired me to be a farmer, I’m not an agriculturist, I never read agriculture, but I am interested in doing agriculture. So what encouraged me, you know, our country, we used, when the war came out, most of our people who cultivate are no longer there.

And then, our people who stayed for almost 21 years out of their country, and they have been always fed by the UN. And the UN made our people to be lazy. And when people are lazy, it’s very difficult to encourage them, even if you talk to them.

But it will be easier for them to see with their eyes. So we have to change the way our people live for 21 years. We have to let them know they are an independent country, everybody has to work hard to get his own food.

If we all work together, and everybody works, then even this issue of saying, oh, commodities are so expensive, everything is expensive, is simply because we are always looking for somewhere else. But we are not looking down to get our own food. If we have our own food, we can reduce this market by itself.

Because the market, if a trader comes with his property, and he wants to sell them, and nobody is coming to buy from them, they automatically will reduce the prices. That needs a war, a war of food security. Everybody must have his own food.

Then you may go to the market with something you don’t do. For example, like sugar. Okay, I can go and buy sugar.

But sugar also will be down, because the other commodities are very cheap. So that is part of my campaign, that we need to work together, we need to produce our own food. How small the place you want to cultivate, provided that you have at least something you produce for yourself.

That’s why I have decided I’ve been cultivating, even when I was still the Bishop of Renk. When I was in Renk, I had three tractors for the diocese. And those three tractors managed for me to build about six primary schools in the Diocese of Renk.

So when I was asked to become an archbishop, then when I left them for the Diocese of Renk. So still when I was here, it became part of my program, because you keep people busy. So when I retired, I picked it up. Because I retired, I still have an energy that I can cultivate for my life, for my people, because I’m not alone. I’m with my children and other extended family. So to feed them, it is only for you to go to the field and cultivate.

So I have to struggle to feed my family through agriculture. Although it is not that big, we can feed the whole family, but at least there is something you can show that you are still working for agriculture. So that’s what motivated me to become a farmer.

Q: Can you describe the transition from being a bishop to becoming a farmer? Were there any challenges?

Ans: Yes, there are challenges always in every move you are doing. Especially in agriculture, there are challenges. If you don’t have cash, you cannot do good agriculture.

I cannot do traditional agriculture again. So the most important is to make mechanized agriculture, which means you need to acquire a tractor. And once you acquire a tractor, and then the other component, even though you might have a tractor and you don’t have cash to bring others, like lubricant, like fuel, those things.

So when you are using mechanized agriculture, there are a lot of challenges. Even if the tractor is there, maybe the tractor may break down. And if you don’t have cash, then it can be a great challenge to your agriculture.

Another problem is in the manpower, the laborers. Our people have not learned how to work. So if you want to bring people to come for labor, they demand so high, because they don’t calculate.

That is the problem of our people today. If you asked someone to come and work on your farm, they raise the labor very high, even above the one you wanted them to do. And that is the reason you see now many Ugandans in Kenya and other parts, they are the ones doing the labor job now in this country, because our people have not learned how to get the job.

When you call them, they have to double it, so that they can get what they want immediately. But that is not how it is done. So we need to teach our people.

That’s one of the problems facing our country. It’s a big challenge, the issue of labor, because our people don’t want to work, but if they accept to work, it demands more. So sometimes now people are crying that the labor has been taken over by other people from other countries.

But it’s because our people have not learned how to take over the labor. So this is one of the issues I’m trying to solve. We need to teach our people how to do the job, whether in agriculture or in other parts of the world.

Q: How long have you been farming?

Ans: I’ve been farming for a long time, since when I became the bishop of Renk. I became the bishop of Renk in 1995, and I stayed in Renk for 15 years, and those 15 years I’ve been cultivating for the whole diocese, and that made me build some of the projects in the diocese of Renk. So then I became an archbishop for 10 years, but when I became an archbishop it was a bit down because I did not have time to go and cultivate.

I retired in 2018, then I picked it up again for my family. So from 2018 up to now, I’m still doing agriculture. So something has been there in my life, and I am interested that if I am supported by a government or any organization who can support me, I can make wonders, and I can teach so many people, because I’m interested in doing that.

The other challenge is land. Where do you get the land? If you go outside Juba or go to the bush, you find yourself, there are people outside there carrying guns, and they are interested in disrupting any activities in agriculture you do. So even some of the laborers can be killed.

That is a challenge. So I remember one time I took my people to the garden, and then later on the people who were carrying guns came and took away their belongings, even phones and other things.

So there is really a challenge in making a farm, and it is the work of the government to make sure to collect all the guns from the hands of those people.

And that’s why some of the people, when they want to do agriculture now, are afraid. If you go outside there, you can be easily killed. So that is another very big challenge to most of the people, not me who is interested alone.

There are so many people who are interested in going and making agriculture, but they don’t have the power, because if you go out there, somebody may come and kill you or kill the laborers you have taken to your field. The government has not taken that seriously. So when people go for agriculture, there is no secure place that has been marked by our government.

The government needs to come out and make a station. Like now, if you go to Bilnyang or go beyond Bilnyang, that is a good land there. But if you go there, somebody comes and threatens you.

But if the government could make posts outside the town so that people can go and collect, while those either the police or the army posts, people could be protected from them.

 So that is one of the problems our government has not addressed, and that’s why there is hunger. People are pushed to the town.

We are sitting in the town, because if you might be going there, you can be easily killed. So it’s one of the biggest challenges to the people who want to make agriculture.

 Maybe the people who can make agriculture are the people who are army generals or those who are in the government who have security, who can send their bodyguards to go and guard their land.

But that one, it’s not correct. If it is only those who are able who will be cultivating, then still also you have not done anything. You have to make a post so that everybody can go and be around that post, and then they do their agriculture.

That is my appeal to the government, because I heard that there are some good numbers of big people. They are cultivating outside there, simply because they have the security. But what about others like us? We don’t have security.

So I will not make any big deal. Maybe I will work in a small area, because I’m afraid myself and my people may be killed. So the government needs to look at the issue of agriculture.

Yes, they are talking about agriculture, but they are not prepared. They have to show a place and put the forces there and say, hey, anybody who wants to cultivate, come this way. You are going to be protected. If they did that, you will see this country change tomorrow. But they are not thinking about it.

Q: Which type of crops do you grow?

 ANS: I grow sorghum, and I grow this millet. Then I grow okra in my field.

 So how many people have been going to the farm?

Well, for example, whenever you start the season of agriculture, you always start by clearing the land. When you are clearing the land, you need at least 50 people.

In my place, you bring in 50 people for the clearing of the land. And then you stop for a while. Then when it is time for cultivation, you use less people, maybe 10 for the cultivation.

But when it is also time for the wedding, taking the weeds out, you bring another 50 or even less. So up to the end, and then when you come to the harvesting, also you bring another 50. The number of people that may be used until the season finishes, maybe around 90 or 100 people.

Q: How many bags did you produce last year and what do you expect this year?

ANS: I produced over 300 bags. Well, this year, it depends. Because this year, I am expecting either the same amount or less because it depends on the rain.

The rain this year came in the beginning, but now it’s not consistent where I am cultivating now. And if the rain is not consistent, then it is reducing the yielding of the products. Yeah.

Q: So what has been the most rewarding part for you?

ANS: Well, the benefit, first of all, my work is to secure food in my house. So whatever number of people in my house, I will not be afraid of what to eat. That is the first thing I always have to make sure I have at least 20 or 30 bags in my store.

Once you secure that, then you begin to say, okay, you will be selling at a lower price to the people who have not been cultivating. So when you sell with a lower price to the people, then you are helping them also. And the money you receive from the one you are selling, it will be the one you use, the 30 bags in the family.

So for me, my family, I’m not working, and I have a good number of people in my house and also my relatives, and the world is wonderful. So I make sure they have their food on the table. So my cultivation I’m doing now, it’s not that big that I can make it as a commercial.

It’s just actually for the consumption of my family. But whatever small thing I sell out, it’s not that commercial. It’s also to make sure I have cash.

Because if you don’t have cash, you cannot be able to eat the grain you have put into your store. So that is the way I have been living with my family. If I want to make it as a commercial, as I said before, where do I do it? Because there is a problem of insecurity.

So it’s very difficult to make it a big commercial issue. The person who can make it commercial unless you have soldiers around you, those who have guns. Because you can go for 100 feddan or 300 feddan.

I personally have a tractor, I can do it. But how will I do it? To make that big, huge land, you cannot make it because of the insecurity.

Q: How do you balance the physical demands of farming with your spiritual practices or personal time?

ANS: Well, you have to make a timetable. In life, I’m a priest. I get up around three in the morning, make sure I pray with my family at five. At six, I have to go to the farm.

And then you go and command your people to make your farm. And then you come back and then you begin, either if you are asked to go and preach, I go and prepare my position, my spiritual message. Then I preach.

So I feel that I’m doing them all. Because it is a matter of dividing your time.

Q: So what advice would you give to somebody who is looking for a good farm?

ANS: As I said, it depends on aspiration. If you have an aspiration of doing agriculture, it’s simple, very simple. Because I can advise people that if you find a small piece of land, make practice in it.

Whether it is in your house, if you have a big house, you can put a small area, you make, you cultivate a small, those like tomatoes, kudra, and other things.

You can grow them in your house. That is part of backyard agriculture. I used to do it in my house.

You know, sometimes you can bring this, there are containers. You can bring the soil from the river and put it in a container. You can even do agriculture in a container, like tomatoes and other things.

You can grow them at home. Agriculture is not that big, you go for that big. You have to start with the smaller thing, which you can consume for a week.

You can do them at home. So the issue is aspiration. If you have that zeal, so having interest in agriculture, you can do it at home.

You can see my house now. I have some trees, small trees, I have planted again around my house. Because you need to see a green thing in your house.

Because the green thing is part of life. Because human beings, you have to live with the green. Because it’s alive, it’s something living.

So it depends on the person, whether he’s interested or not. But even though you teach somebody and he’s not interested, he may not do it.

Q: What is your message to the government?

ANS: Actually, my interest is that if the government wanted us, because they’ve been always saying, hey, you go for farming.

But they have not designated a place. They need to go outside there and put in the army and call people to go there. That thing, I thought, if the government really wanted us to go for agriculture, they would have to put an army post like that place called Tingeli.

If they go there to Tingli, and then they put the army there or the police post there, and then they call people to go there, and then we can go.

 You go and get 100 feddan or 200 feddan, something like that. And then if there is anything, the security government is there, then the insecurity will not be a problem.

But if such a thing is not done by the government, there is nobody who is going to cultivate it. What I have seen now is that the only people working in the government, using the government soldiers, are the ones who can cultivate. And that is not logic.

That is not fair. Because it will be only because you are in the government, you are using the government army. But if the government army could be used for all of us, you will see this country will make a very big turn.

And we will be a very agricultural country. We have a good land. We have the rain. But our government has not provided security for those who can go. Many people are being harassed outside there now. Those who are cultivating.

Even so many women are there. But they are being harassed outside. You see? So this is to me, the government has not planned how to make everybody do agriculture.

So my advice to the government, let them designate an area. And they have to put the army there. And then people can go for cultivation.

Even those armies there, they can cultivate and they will be okay. Because for those who will be around there, they may cultivate for those who are securing them. That is my advice.

And there is no other way. Even in a ten state, secure and big area, ask those who have power to come there. For people who have one tractor, two tractors, they can go there.

They cultivate there. And then the workers can come there. And then you create a village.

Like now, everybody is coming to Juba. You go and create a village outside there, a village for agriculture. Because if I go with my ten people, the other person with the ten people, other people with the ten people, it’s a huge village.

Then this issue, the statement, says let us take the town to the village. That is the easy way you do it. Agriculture always creates the town.

Make the town for agriculture. People can go there for work. And when they finish the work, you find that they got their food.

So that is my advice to the government.