Why hunger is still an issue in South Sudan yet there are abundance fertile lands
By Machar Garang Mabior, Bor town, Jonglei State
April 19, 2016 (SSB) —- The common questions on the streets are what are the reasons behind not producing our own food despite the vast and fertile land in South Sudan. When meeting with farmers, we found out that the possible answers as to why we are still struggling with hunger are as follows:
Insecurity, yes I concur with those who blame the food insecurity on insecurity because farming cannot go down well with fears in place since farmers may fall victim when trying to produce their own food but could not completely stop us from food production because if we don’t produce our own food then we will certainly be the victim of hunger and we opted to food from UN which later change us from self reliance to dependency. Again not all parts of South Sudan are insecure, in those parts food can be produce.
More so technologies around food production are low as farmers are using their usual ways of food production, when extension staffs intervene, farmers intend to enquire from them that, when did you become expert in extend that you can teach us yet we started farming more than your age, it could be true but the technologies are changing compare to those days when traditional farming was an issue so there are very high possibility to allows extension approaches in farming.
Food ration given to refugees, IDPS and returnees and vulnerable group had made it difficult for farming to take place as usual because non beneficiaries indirectly benefit from the food being given to vulnerable groups. Laziness, the youth way back to 1980s, villages were the one supplying the towns but now youth are sitting idles in the towns leaving only old age downtown that have no energy to impact on cultivation.
Rural urban migration following the services in town’s couple with town lives, most of our people had moved to town even those who are not in school /working had move to towns for reasons known best by them which contributing negatively to Agriculture establishment. Erratic rainfalls contributed to unreliability in crops yield since plants needs water to support them manufacture their own food and other metabolism.
Drought/flood Natural calamities had no direct remedies but to be predicted by using early warning sign and systems and weather forecast, irrigation can reduce the effects of drought. Low extension services as long as farming concern, extension services need to provide to the farmer in In order to increase their harvest and have surplus for sales.
Use of traditional tools/seeds, introduction of mechanize agriculture on top of tradition agriculture will certainly have surplus in production industry. In addition it is widely believes that having land couple with energy at the young age contributes to wealth accumulation which is a different story in South Sudan, in South Sudan, there are enough fertile and abundance land but still in struggling with hunger.
Roads and transport, though the food produced is not much again there are parts of South Sudan that have surplus to take the market in order for them to diversify their feeding yet road connectivity become the problem to farmers.
Solutions/way forward to boost farming.
- Security improvement.
- Farming campaign to be conducted in all the states of South Sudan.
- Peace conferences to be held amongst the neighboring communities to allow farming freely.
- Farmers to be train on modern farming techniques.
- NGOs involved in farming support provided farming inputs, e.g. tools, seeds on timely bases.
- Extension service to provided to farmers
- Introduction of mechanize Agriculture.
- Linking farmers to the market.
- Diversification of farming.
You can reach the author via his email: Machar David Garang Mabior: Email: machar_garang@yahoo.com
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