Agriculture is vital for South Sudan’s national development and food security
By Beek Mabior, Nairobi, Kenya
Wednesday, Augmented 12, 2020 (PW) — Agriculture is the backbone for the economy in any given country on this planet. There is no economy that can develop and benefit the people without the development in the field of agriculture. Industries need agricultural products to make goods for population’s consumption and to grow an economy.Agriculture is the key solution for food insecurity and a country that doesn’t invest in agricultural development is indirectly investing in food insecurity, chronic starvation and extreme poverty. Every great and prosperous nation on earth have invested in agriculture and safeguard her food security to avoid needless starvation, malnutrition and inflation.
For instance, the United States of America is the world largest producer of corn. America has heavily invested in agriculture and that is why they achieved food security. In the U.S, the agriculture generated billions of dollars annually. Moreover, agriculture is a top industry in America and there are 2.2 million agricultural farms that covered an area of 922 million acres. Furthermore, China is world’s number one in agriculture. The country produces many different crops both for domestic consumption and export. Sometimes, I wonder how much we can accomplish if we as South Sudanese people with our government invest in agriculture like the way we always invest heavily in our reckless and senseless political and communal civil wars.
If we can invest in agriculture like the way we always invest tirelessly in meaningless hostilities and animosities instead of peace, unity and national development. I’m pretty sure we’ll entirely eradicate pointless starvation, malnutrition and despicable poverty. In South Sudan, there is widespread chronic food insecurity and abject poverty. The years of civil wars, disruption and loss of economic activities has made the large population to remained in extreme poverty and starvation. Moreover, South Sudan faces one of the worst food insecurity situation on earth and with millions of her people relying on external aid to meet their food needs. Furthermore, in South Sudan, more than 70 percent of the population are relying on agriculture to meet their food and income needs but agricultural sector is facing challenges to fulfill that desire and dependency.
So the government of South Sudan and its development partners like food and agriculture organization of the United Nations (FAO) should focus on improving the agriculture sector in the country. Additionally, if the government of South Sudan could pay more attention to agriculture and allocate sufficient budget to the sector, then I can tell you without doubt that we’ll be the breadbasket of Africa in few years to come. Mark my word. Our government need to pay serious attention to agricultural sector like the way it does to every drop of oil that is pump daily in Upper Nile Region. In addition to that, there are many benefits that come from agriculture and as you are aware that in South Sudan, many communities sustain their traditional livelihood systems in the agricultural sector.
There is mixture of fishing, livestock, crop cultivation, wild foodstuff collection and small scale trade. Our country faces huge setbacks to develop agricultural sector. There is abject poverty, low investment in agriculture, low income distribution and inadequate delivery of social services. Additionally, agriculture is a significant sector in South Sudan’s economy and majority of our citizenry depends on the agriculture sector to sustain their livelihoods. And according to the food and agriculture organization (FAO) of the United Nations. It indicated that “80% of households rely on agriculture” and there is “1.25 million farming families” across South Sudan. Moreover, it said that “each family cultivates an average of 0.91 hectares” and that “1 million hectares of land is cultivated”across the country which cannot really feed the entire nation.Now as you can see from the above data, you can figure out why South Sudan is unable to feed herself sufficiently and to eliminate food insecurity and deplorable poverty. We as South Sudanese people have never fully embrace to channel our energies and faculties into the agricultural development. Instead we are always readily willing to invest our precious energies and best brains in meaningless civil wars and animosities.Sometimes, I wonder if God is not really wondering about the ways we do things in South Sudan. We have beautiful and fertile soil but we’re not willing to cultivate it for our food production and food security. But we’re very much willing to import almost everything from neighboring countries especially Uganda and Kenya for our survival. Even tissue paper and toothpick are also imported. That’s shameful and it is a motive why I chose to become a scientist in the near future and make our goods in our industries in South Sudan.
That habit, is completely against the laws of nature which clearly stated that a man has to work hard to get something to survive on. Okay, we can buy few items from the rest of the globe but not everything. We are building the economies and revenues of bordering nations instead of building the economy of our beloved gorgeous South Sudan. Imagine if South Sudan was a human being, she would have rebel against us, we the citizenry for having fail to utilize her properly for our benefitand for having also subjected her to senseless civil wars for years. And to prove to you that millions of our citizens are totally unwilling to invest in agriculture.
Take for instance, bring a AK-47 and “Jembe” (hoe) and let a typical South Sudanese civilian chose between the two, he/she will definitely select AK-47 to go and use it for his/her unclear activities, believe me, and he/she will give you a million reasons why he/she need a gun more than a “Jembe” (hoe) which is a profitable agricultural tool. If a civilian was a South Sudan government’s security person who is constitutionally mandated to have an accessibility to weapons and ammunitions for security motives, then, it’d be understandable security wise because of the need of defense against external and internal threat.
But a typical civilian preferring a gun over an agricultural tool is a worrying sign both to the government and the general public.And this lead to the question, why do civilians desire to armed themselves militarily instead of them arming themselves agriculturally with agricultural tools that’ll grow the national economy of South Sudan? Furthermore, the significance of the agriculture is massive and it is associated with the production of vital food and profit crops. Agriculture include activities such as forestry, dairy, fruit cultivation, poultry, mushroom, bee keepingand etc.
Moreover, processing, marketing, distribution of crops, livestock products are all accepted as part and parcel of the agriculture.Hence agriculture could be called as the production, processing, promotion and distribution of agricultural products.Additionally, there are many benefits of the agriculture which include: source of food as well as fodder, marketable surplus, source of livelihood, contribution to national income, source of raw material to industries, source of foreign exchange resources, massive employment opportunities, source of national economic development, source of saving and source of food security.
Finally, our government of South Sudan need to invest in agricultural sector and allocate sufficient budget to the Ministry of Agriculture just like the way it does for defense ministry. The Ministry of Agriculture need to be financially stable in order to fight war against chronic starvation and food insecurity in the country. Reluctance to invest in agriculture is acceptance to invest indirectly in food insecurity and despicable poverty. A stable agricultural sector will ensure a country of food security. The major requirement of any nation globally is food security. Food security will help in the prevention of chronic hunger, dependency on foreign aid, malnourishment and extreme poverty in South Sudan.
The author, Beek Mabior, is a concerned South Sudanese citizen and independent opinion writer who can be reached via his Email: betterarticle165@gmail.com
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