Roundup: South Sudan aims for 2.5 mln tonnes of food output annually

South Sudan has set a target of growing 2.5 tonnes of food from 1.5 million tonnes in a bid to reduce imports that have depleted its foreign currency reserves and secure food security, an official said on Friday.

Mathew Gordon Udo, undersecretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Cooperatives and Rural Development, told Xinhua in Juba that the country hopes to be a regional food basket by implementing its five-year agricultural sector policy framework and the 25 year comprehensive agricultural master plan.

"Our plan is to produce 2.5 million tonnes of food but in 2014 we had a deficit of 400,000 tonnes. We hope this deficit to be covered by our development partners. The president has himself donated 1,000 mechanical tractors to various counties in the country for cultivation," Udo said.

He said South Sudan has agricultural potential with its vast arable land and 38 million livestock. Currently oil and mining have dominated the economy in terms of revenue to finance 98 percent of the fiscal budget since the country's independence from Sudan in 2011.

Udo said the world's youngest country is divided in seven agricultural zones where different type of crops and livestock can be raised.

"In the south we have the green belt, iron stone plateau, western and eastern flood plains, mountainous area and semi-arid area where crops like rice, sorghum, maize, cassava, coffee, tea, mangoes, and guava can be grown," he explained.

The government official lamented that despite having 15 million cattle and abundant food production potentials, the country has heavily relied on the less profitable peasant agriculture instead of modernized agriculture.

"The use of this livestock for commercial purpose is not there. We don't sell our livestock but instead keep cattle for social prestige and we use traditional system of management. If we transform these by reducing the total density of livestock and sell to the world market then we can be rich," Udo explained.

He called for increased budget allocation to agriculture from the meager 1.5 percent to at least 5 percent to achieve meaningful impact in alleviating food insecurity that has led to community conflicts as a result of scarcity of water points and grazing land.

The Maputo Convention signed by African countries calls for at least budgetary allocation of 10 percent to agriculture. He appealed to the international community and investors to invest in the sector.

"We have come up with projects but it's not only the government to take the lead, the private investors must come in through public private partnership to transform agricultural sector from subsistence to modernized agriculture," he said.

Udo also disclosed they plan to use the established agricultural bank to support farmers with loans.

"In reality our agricultural bank now is nominal because it is not fully registered and its prerequisite capital has not yet been paid to the bank of South Sudan for it to function. It has been requesting for capital from the government for registration to function," he noted.

He also explained that land acquisition for large scale agriculture has been hampered by legal framework, which he said will be solved by the national land use policy in the offing. The country's agriculture is rain fed and they plan to use irrigation to power it.

"Our agriculture depends entirely on rainfall. Sometimes floods due to heavy rainfall affect food production. We also have long term drought in places like Eastern Equatoria, Magwi, Aweil, Ikotos and Kapoeta areas," he said.

He added that this can be tackled with irrigation agriculture in areas close to the Nile and flood plains, but only if peace is maintained. Endit