“Feed the nation,” Machar tells South Sudan food production sector

September 28, 2010 (JUBA) – The Vice President of the semi-autonomous region of southern Sudan, Riek Machar, has urged the institutions in charge of the food production sector to double their efforts and feed the region, saying it is always difficult for any nation to make its own decisions if it does not feed itself.

Ministers of Agriculture, Animal Resources and Fisheries from all the ten states of southern Sudan, including their respective Undersecretaries, Director Generals and Directors have converged in the historical town of Torit, the capital of Eastern Equatoria state, which shot the first bullet in 1955, launching the struggle to liberate the region. The conference was described as a forum for improving policy on food security aiming to maximize food production and to eradicate poverty through coordination of activities in the ten states.

Also present in the meeting was the Vice Chancellors of three main universities in southern Sudan and representatives of development partners including donors, international and regional agencies and the private sector.

In his key note speech on Monday, to launch the conference in Torit, Machar stressed the need to introduce policy reforms and effective coordination in the food production sector in order to address some of the issues that hinder the development of the sector.

As the people of southern Sudan are pastoralists and agro-pastoralists, the Vice President said unless the attitude of pastoralists is streamlined towards accepting the commercialization their livestock, the cattle in southern Sudan will have no positive impact on economic growth in the region.

The region also needs mechanized farming to realize its huge agricultural potential. Machar urged the private sector to step in and fill the gap. As security currently tops the priorities in allocations of budgets in the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS), leaving agriculture and animal resources ministries with insufficient budget allocations to fund significant food production projects, Machar stressed the importance of developing and attracting the private sector to invest in food production.

The Vice President called on educated people to join the private sector, saying unless this happens, Southern Sudan will continue to be fed by others.

“A nation that does not feed itself does not make its own decisions,” he told the conference, saying that when hungry, your decisions can be made by someone else. He said there was a need to design a practicable policy by all the technocrats present from all the ten states, which can be implemented and move the region quickly towards achieving food security. He said this is possible by realizing the huge agricultural and livestock potentials, in order to avoid the risk of unnecessary dependency on other nations for food.

Some of the states have highly qualified and experienced technocrats that can make food production a success in the states, he pointed out, adding that such highly qualified civil servants need to be appropriately appreciated by the state governments, so that they are not lost to the GoSS in Juba.

Machar further said that GoSS would transfer more functions and budgets of its ministries in the food production sector to the state governments if the state government proves their capacity, through their technocrats, to implement the policy on food security. He urged the state governments to establish specialized research centers on resources that are relevant to each state’s potential.

The Vice President also said it was high time to design a policy that would help change the attitude of pastoralists, for them to accept the commercialization of their cattle and increase their numbers, while at the same time contributing to the overall economic growth of the nation.

Currently a bull in the market is said to be “equal to the price of four barrels of oil”, he said, arguing that if that bull was part of a commercialized system, it could multiply and become more beneficial than the four barrels of oil, which he said, only lied under the ground. He said that it was an unfortunate cultural attitude that led to some pastoralists allowing themselves to die of hunger while letting their bulls live, which was particularly prevalent during the war.

The Vice President also reminded the conferees that while designing the plan in the food production sector, issues of peace, education, health and security of the pastoralist populations needed to be taken into consideration. He also expressed concern that some of the pastoralists may decide to move away from where they may be registered to vote in the referendum to other locations in search of water and grazing lands for their animals.

Some of them leave school and follow their cattle to remote regions while others become involved in cattle raiding against their neighbors for greed, he said, urging the conference to look into all such factors that do not promote the welfare of pastoralists and come up with resolutions and recommendations for the situation.

The three-day forum will also dwell on the health of animals such as on eradication of animal diseases in the region.

Southern Sudan is almost totally dependent on its oil revenues that constitute up to 98% of the overall annual budget, which is then divided between GoSS, states and local governments at the county level.

Despite being described as the ‘basket of fruits’ by economists who comment on its potential in agriculture and livestock, southern Sudan, which is only three months away from possibly becoming an independent nation through the conduct of a referendum early next year, is still largely dependent on food imports from the north and the neighboring countries such as Uganda and Kenya.

(ST)