By Kitab Unango
The World Food Program (WFP) and the government through the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security have agreed to empower farmers through the Agricultural Bank of South Sudan to boost agricultural productivity in the country.
The agreement, signed Monday last week, aims to avert the current worsened food insecurity across South Sudan.
WFP projected in April that over 6 million people, more than half the country’s population would face acute food insecurity this year.
This situation, exacerbated by the novel coronavirus, added more layers to the existing plight of South Sudanese spurred by wide spread displacement due to rampant violence, flooding and the recent invasion of desert locusts.
Josephine Lagu Yanga, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security said lack of funding impedes agricultural transformation and improve in food security despite the country’s favourable condition for agriculture.
“We have arable land, we have young population, we have sufficient rainfall, and above all, we have the Nile running through our country and we are still experiencing food insecurity. Really, that is not justifiable.
“We have to work very hard to ensure that we embark on transformation of agriculture in this country. What is missing in the ministry is sufficient funding to enable us to transform agriculture,” Josephine lamented.
Matthew Hollingworth, WFP Representative and Country Director for South Sudan, said the agreement highlights three things the organization aims to achieve.
“The signing of the document, I believe is part of our long term vision WFP should be doing in South Sudan. We believe if we are going to serve the people, the WFP should support sectors like small-scale farming in the country, we must have strong robust agreement with the government to support an entity that can support their famers.”
“There are three things that we wish to achieve; we want to empower small-scale farmers, we want to scale up the commercial, local, and domestic agricultural business with procurement from our side and want to build the situational capacity of the entity that we believe can be a catalyst to change.”
Hollingworth added, “World Food program intends to feed over 5 million most vulnerable people South Sudanese today.”
“The majority of food, when we buy food for transfer, it is coming from outside. We want to change that because we know we can change that and buy more from the country we are working in, over time we will do also out of job and that is ultimate vision of World Food Program in South Sedan,”
Rual Makuei Thiang, Managing Director of Agricultural Bank of South Sudan the bank, if supported will not only improve food security but also the economy of the country through agricultural produce.
“Building the capacity of Agricultural Bank will enable the bank to finance farmers to produce surplus. And the bank can finance cash crops that can be sold to get hard currency and reducing inflation,” he said.
“The bank does not have capital. If the bank is given support, it will produce the food to avoid the country from depending entirely on oil revenue. We produce the food, sell it and get hard currency,” Thiang reiterated.