World Vision New Zealand is helping those affected by the crisis in Northern Sudan re-establish their communities, through agricultural activities.
Last month, the aid agency’s local staff started a sweet potato nursery in Mershing, South Darfur - an area that has been repeatedly terrorised by Janjaweed rebels.
People from all around Mershing recently came to a farmer’s field day organised by World Vision. This was the first of its kind to promote yellow-flesh sweet potatoes in the area.
A World Vision staff member helps the farmers in Mershing harvest sweet potatoes
Staff talked about the nutritive value of the yellow sweet potato and different methods of cooking it.
At the end of the field day, people carried samples of the sweet potatoes home to show others. They asked when the vines would be distributed so they could plant them on their farms.
World Vision then distributed 66,000 yellow-flesh sweet potatoes to 220 households in Mershing and Manawashi. Each household received 300 cuttings from 3 different varieties.
Although the community in Mershing had not seen yellow sweet potatoes before, they have now given them local names. They call one variety Abusabe, another, Alkarkadawi, and a third, Agashe.
Elsewhere in Northern Sudan, World Vision taught 450 farmers about crop husbandry, including thinning and gapping of millet, timely weeding and marketing.
At a tree nursery in Manawashi, 30 people attended a training session on the importance of trees, and how to make green fencing. 900 tree seeds were sown in the nursery in July.
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