Mothers trained by SAADO in Mangalla attend to their nursery beds as they plan to move the seedlings to the seedbed in March 2021. Credit| Smile Again Africa Development Organization/Facebook

A national non-governmental organization is calling on South Sudanese to embrace farming as a means of addressing acute food shortages.

Smile Again Africa Development Organization, SAADO, said farmers should redouble their efforts to cultivate during the rainy season.

“Embracing agricultural production is the only way that we can be able to stand as a country,” an official from SAADO stated.

The organization says with sufficient locally produced food, South Sudan can alleviate hunger instead of relying on humanitarian aid and imports from other countries.

“We can start with subsistence food production by producing what we eat first at a household, and then later we go to commercial production,” said Daniel Ayuen, SAADO’s Emergency Livelihood Response Project Officer.

According to the integrated food security phase classification report, food insecurity continues to affect more than half of the population.

Aid agencies also say 8.3 million people are still in need of food, while 7.2 million others will remain acutely food insecure from April to July 2021.

This is attributed to climate shocks, low crop production, insecurity, and macro-economic crises.

According to SAADO this situation can be reversed through collective efforts from the farmers, local authorities, and partners by supporting the sector.

“We should be able to be self-reliant…we can alleviate poverty in South Sudan by being handy and being able to produce our own food,” Mr. Ayuen stressed during an interview on Eye Radio’s Dawn program on Friday, June 25.

On Thursday, June 24, South Sudan’s Ministries of Finance, Agriculture signed a 113.2 million U.S dollar grant with the World Bank.

The funds will be used to boost agricultural productivity and support livelihood resilience among the local communities.

Part of the money will also be spent on countering locust invasion.