A farmer harvests groundnuts. (File photo)

An international organization is calling on communities in the low-lying areas of the country to plant crops that are resistant to floods and dry spells in order to adapt to the impact of climate change.

Guwoly Stella, a Roving Nutrition Program Manager at Action Against Hunger said producing flood-resistant crops such as banana, rice and sugarcane can help increase yields and avert hunger.

Stella also feared that with the recent heavy downpours and climatic shocks increasing, the projected food security situation could further deteriorate in the country.

“We have to do a lot in terms of using the opportunities of the flooding on how to produce food with the availability of the water, especially the flood resistance crops,” Guwoly told to Eye Radio in sideline interview.

“We can easily produce like rice, bananas, and sugarcanes these are all initiatives that can be made to ensure, we’ve constant food supply.”

“And beside that we can also do floating gardens with support of water lilies, and we can produce food where flooding is really persistence. There are always solutions where flooding where we can increase the food production in the country.”

South Sudan has endured four years of historic flooding and intermittent dry spells – situations that have been linked to climate change.

According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report, about 7.1 million people in South Sudan are projected to be food insecure next year.

Guwoly is also calling for multisector approach and advocacy in fighting hunger and malnutrition in the country.

“We need a collaborative effort, especially the food security and water and sanitation, hygiene, where we’ll be able to provide clean source of drinking water and will be able to make sure that families have access to constant supply of food, empower the community especially the women on economic empowerments.”

“Once we empower women, they have opportunities to make decisions within their houses, they stand a better chance to support themselves and taking good care of their children for better nutrition outcomes.”

“In nutshell, we need collaborative efforts of all sectors to fight hunger and malnutrition and greatest of all, we need a lot of advocacies especially this is where the media fraternity can really provide a huge support.”

On Friday, Action Against Hunger conducted a comprehensive Media Training for National and Local Reporting on Nutrition and Wash Best Practices.

Speaking at the event, Sulaiman Sesay, the organization’s Country Director said the purpose of the media training is to create advocacy and partnership against malnutrition and wash-related programs.

“This training will create impact for effective reporting on crucial issues such as nutrition and water and sanitation hygiene “WASH” and also the success of this media training, it’s going to significantly contribute to the overall urgent goal of Right2grow.”

“So, like, I started saying earlier, this project is just based on advocacy, and partnership in against malnutrition.”