Josephine Lagu Yanga, the Minister of Agriculture - Courtesy

The South Sudan Minister of Agriculture and Food Security said on Thursday the government is working to prioritize agriculture and other productive sectors to revive the economy.

Josephine Lagu said the country must tape into its other natural resources and end dependence on oil revenue.

She lamented that South Sudan has the capacity to produce enough food and export surplus to the region and beyond.

Speaking during the launch of the South Sudan Food and Safety Association, she said the ministry is working to ensure improvement in agricultural production and productivity.

“We have the capacity to produce food in access to sell to the neighboring countries and beyond. We have not gotten there yet but we are working very hard in the government to ensure we improve our agriculture production,” she said.

“To do that, we need to invest in agriculture and we are also working hard to ensure that the government indeed prioritize agriculture and all the other productive sector of the economy so that we do not keep on depending on oil as the only source of economy.”

She added that “we can diversify our economy starting from agriculture”, but it is not clear what practical measures have been put in place to realize the goal.

The South Sudan Food and Safety Association is a project funded by the European Union under the EU Trust Fund for Africa and Implemented by the International Trade Center.

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization says up to 95 percent of South Sudanese rely on farming, herding, or fishing.

But according to the United States international development agency USAID, conflict and climate shocks in South Sudan have significantly damaged agricultural production.

The latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), shows about 7.76 million people in South Sudan are likely to face hunger between April andJuly 2023, while 1.4 million children will be malnourished.