CES Governor Augustino Jadalla. (Photo: CES)

Central Equatoria governor has announced plans for major increase of agricultural production in the rainy season and requested the state’s six counties to allot 20 square-kilometer of land to the government for farming.

Augustino Jadalla made the call while addressing locals in Yei River’s Lasu Payam during a visit to assess the general situation there. Jadalla said the farming land will be allocated in Terekeka, Yei River, Kajo-Keji, Lainya and Morobo counties.

According to him, the development is to strengthen agriculture in the state, alleviate food insecurity and minimize the country’s dependence on imports.

For the initiative to succeed, Governor Jadalla called for peace and unity among local populations.

“For us to get wealth and have good money, we need to go for group farming and this will require unity and one spirit to avoid failure. We need support on agriculture sector, our national government has given us directives on this,” he said.

“But there will be people coming with support for farming, through that process we can support the cooperatives, bring bulldozers to those areas, prepare land and uproot trees getting the ground ready for farming.”

“That’s why, in Yei, I need 20 square Kilometer of land as well as in Morobo, Lainya, Kajo-Keji, Juba and Terkeka making it all 120 Sq-Km of land for agriculture.”

South Sudan’s economy depends heavily on revenue generated from crude oil, transported through Sudan for international sale.

But the war that erupted in Khartoum in April 2023 and the subsequent withdrawal of Malaysian oil firm Petronas, have severely disrupted the oil production and sale, depriving the country’s coffers of oil income.

For the past year, civil servants and members of the organized forces in South Sudan have not been paid more than 10 months of their salaries as the national government struggled to meet its expenditures.

Jadalla’s call comes a month after Lakes Governor Rin Tueny Mabor encouraged his people to prioritize agricultural production and promised to help provide security for them to freely go about their businesses.

On February 13, President Kiir directed the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security Hussein Abdelbagi to boost food production to attain sustainable food security as the only solution to the country’s economic recovery agenda.