Josephine Lagu Yanga, the Minister of Agriculture - Courtesy

The government and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization have secured 9 million US dollars for the revival of several agricultural schemes across the country.

The Agriculture Minister, Josephine Lagu said, the fund will benefit the Aweil Rice Scheme and other farming schemes in Kapoeta and Warrap State.

Josephine said the finance was released last year after the government lobbied for assistance from continental financiers to help boost the local production.

“We really tried to lobby a lot from the development partners to see, if we could get some funding for rehabilitating the Aweil Rice Scheme. Fortunately, we were able to get some grant from the same financiers that is the African Development Bank. They gave us a grant last year to the tune of 9 million dollars,” she said.

“These 9 million is already allocated and Aweil Rice Scheme is going to benefit from that 9 million, but it is not the only scheme that is going to benefit. There are also other schemes, there is one in Kapoeta North, and there is also another scheme in Warrap which is also going to benefit from this 9 million.”

On Wednesday, Minister Josephine Lagu disclosed, the government and partners will travel to Northern Bahr El Ghazal State for the launch of the rehabilitation of farming machinery at the Aweil Rice Scheme next month.

Minister Josephine Lagu said the project to revive Aweil Rice Scheme is being implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization and the African Development Bank.

Meanwhile, the official pointed out the inter-communal violence in the country poses hindrance to the governments plan to boost agricultural production.

“The only constraint that I think is affecting our ability to produce food for ourselves in my views, are two. One is the ongoing conflict at the subnational level, in parts of the country, because when there is conflict in the rural areas, the farmers cannot go and cultivate,

“There is no personal security guaranteed and this directly affect the ability or inability of farmers to cultivate. But in addition to that also, as a country, we have limited resources.”