South Sudan need more agricultural extension officers than political extension officers
By Emmanuel Malual Makuach, Nairobi, Kenya
June 12, 2016 (SSB) — South Sudan need more agricultural extension officers than political extension officers who are an agent of conflicts in the country. Agricultures extensions officers will be an agent of food security and political stability in our societies. Agriculture extension officers are intermediaries between research and farmers. They operate as facilitators and communicators, helping farmers in their decision-making and ensuring that appropriate knowledge is implemented to obtain the best results in agriculture in South Sudan
Recent donation of tractors by President Kiir to all states of South Sudan was a good move to curb the food insecurity. However, there is still acute shortages of agricultural extension officers to teach farmers agricultural information on natural resources, animals, crops, on how best to utilize the farmland, how to construct proper irrigation schemes, economic use and storage of water, how to combat animal disease, and save on the cost of farming equipment and procedures.
They need to ensure that farmers understand this information and use it on their farms in order to obtain the best production. Most of the areas which need the irrigation also need the extension officers to educate the farmers on emerging technologies that has just come for agriculture.
Agricultural extension officers often propagate new farming methods. This always takes place in conjunction with the farmers, who make the final decision. They also research food, fibre and animal products in conjunction with agricultural scientists. They assist cattle farmers, and guide farmers across the country and assist veterinary surgeons in the treatment of different animal diseases. Each agricultural extension officer is linked to one of the agricultural development centres throughout the country, which render agricultural services to farmers.
Agricultural extension officers have turn into political extension officers because they ministers belong to different party or tribes which can influences the famers on the political ideologies than encourage farmers to adopt new, improved methods of farming; using a variety of methods to reach farmers i.e. organizing farmers groups and, ‘farmer days’, demonstrations, lectures and literature, as well as informing the media.
The best method though, is through personal contact with farmers on their farms. So many countries across the global there is fields day that all the farmers are called to converge to the ground and lectures by agricultural experts for the new technology that will help the country to achieved food security.
It sometimes happens that an agricultural extension officer must re-plan a farm in conjunction with the farmer. All the resources on the farm are then thoroughly investigated. Sometimes it is necessary for agricultural extension officers to develop recovery programmes for eroded soil, protect cultivated land against erosion and develop a new pasture system.
The South Sudan economic crisis is marked by alarming levels of hunger. Some 5.8 million people, according to the UN agencies or nearly half of the country’s population, are unsure where their next meal will come from, while the rate of severe food insecurity has now reached 12 percent, double the rate of one year ago. “South Sudan is facing a deadly blend of conflict, economic hardship and poor rains.”
Together, they are worsening a hunger gap that will force more people to go hungry and increase malnutrition This report makes it clear that improving the food situation requires a peaceful resolution to the conflict that have cause the hunger crisis in South Sudan.
Food insecurity has spread to areas previously considered relatively stable, highlighting the cumulative impact of conflict, economic downturn and climactic shocks; some analyst says more extensions officers are needed to improve that agricultural sectors in the country.
Traditional farmers blame the government for not providing the knowledge and skills to the famers in the villages. Most of producing agricultural foods areas experiences a lot challenges because of the neglects from the government. The leaders from both greater Equatoria states and Bahr el Ghazal and Upper Nile state which are the back born of the country in agricultural production has now abandoned the farming systems in the those days of struggle for South Sudan as country.
More political extension officers in the country has also cause the food insecurity; youth are mobilizes to go and fight and forget the farming seasons. That has affected agricultural input because human labor is lost. The regions will not have food due to lack of farming as most of youth have been taken to go and fight.
The same youth creates serious insecurity, a problem being experienced in former Lakes State counties which have served as food basket during struggle in South Sudan. When political extension officers came in, the farming systems changes because the present of fire arms in the hands of youth also ruins the farming in the country.
Therefore, we should advocate for more agricultural extension officers than political extension officers in South Sudan.
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