View of part of the Aweil Rice Scheme in Northern Bahr El Ghazal State. |31st May 2022. |Credit: Emmanuel J. Akile/Eye Radio.

President Salva Kiir in his New Year address on Tuesday said his government will embark on agriculture to enhance food security in the country.

South Sudan’s economy depends almost entirely on revenue from oil export through neighboring Sudan.

However, the civil 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.

UN agencies have warned of an alarming humanitarian crisis in South Sudan where more than half the country’s population will go hungry in 2025.

The latest food security assessment has also projected that 85 percent of people fleeing war-torn Sudan to South Sudan will be acutely food insecure in the 2025 lean season.

In a three-page statement posted at midnight into the new year, President Kiir assured the country of his government’s commitment to address the looming hunger.

He directed the Ministry of Agriculture to redouble its efforts and support the farmers across the country to boost and improve productivity.

“In the year 2025, the government will prioritize agriculture to enhance our food security. I am therefore, directing that; the Ministry of Agriculture double its efforts to support farmers across the country to improve yield,” he said.

He also mandated the Ministry of Roads and Bridges to rehabilitate and construct roads leading to Western Equatoria to allow farmers access the market.

In July 2024, the Ministry of Finance and Planning and African Development Bank signed a $46.2 million grant to support the agriculture production and value chain over the next six years in South Sudan.