Supporting private, public institutions will boost food security in South Sudan: experts

By Julius N. Uma

December 02, 2010 (JUBA) – The need to enhance and build capacities of local non-governmental organizations and public institutions should be the southern government’s priority, if the food needs of the population are to be adequately addressed, experts attending a one-day stakeholder’s workshop have resolved.

The main objectives of the workshop, which was held in Juba, the Southern Sudan capital were; to solicit feedback from organisation working in the field of food security and for improving the research findings and critically discuss the various thematic food secu-rity action research findings, conclusions and recommendations.

While officially opening the workshop, Beda Machar Deng, Undersecretary in the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF) reiterated the southern government’s commitments towards ensuring food security in the region through the Sudan Institutional Capacity Programme: Food Security Information for Action (SIFSIA).

Currently funded by the European Union (EU) and executed by the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) in collaboration with partners from the southern govern-ment, SIFSIA reportedly seeks to strengthen the human, physical and institutional capacities of the southern government for analysis, design, monitoring and evaluation of food security related policies and programmes.

“Food security is a priority issue for the Government of Southern Sudan. There are significant numbers of food insecure people in Southern Sudan who are still dependant on food from outside sources,” the MAF undersecretary remarked.

Currently, nearly 80% of the southern population are reported to be dependent on agriculture, which is the backbone of most rural economies.

In 2007, according to Deng, the MAF issued a “Food and Agriculture Policy Framework for Southern Sudan,” with a target to achieve food self sufficiency, reduce poverty by 30% and contribute to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 25% next year.

These set targets, he added, will however be revised by the southern government mainly through setting up more realistic benchmarks as baseline datasets for more realistic projections.

The workshop involved presentations on research findings from public institutions and non-governmental organizations, with a focus on gum production, marketing and food security conducted by SNV-Netherlands.

Others included research findings on livestock and fisheries marketing and food security, conducted by Assistance Mission for Africa (AMA) and how traditional beekeeping can positively contribute towards food security and poverty alleviation in southern Sudan.

Robert Adala, the AMA research team leader told Sudan Tribune that there is need for the government to establish rural-based community training centers and create credit schemes that can help build capacities of the rural population.

More so, he added, was the urgent need by the southern government to consolidate research in the field to develop a policy framework to guide.

So far, the SIFSIA programme has enabled cyclical training of critical mass of professionals in Sudan and abroad on several food security related themes, development of information systems on issues like climate change, weather monitoring, crop production monitoring and provision of information technology equipment, transport and communication facilities.

(ST)