FAO welcomes African Development Bank’s USD 14 million grant to boost agricultural markets and add value in South Sudan
JOINT AfDB/FAO NEWS RELEASE
The African Development Bank (AfDB) is providing a USD 14 million grant to the Government of the Republic of South Sudan to finance the Agricultural Markets, Value Addition and Trade Development (AMVAT) project aimed at enhancing agricultural productivity and boosting marketing and trade of agricultural products in South Sudan. The project will be implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in close liaison with the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.
The five-year AMVAT project will help increase the productivity and incomes of almost 20 000 farming families in Central and Eastern Equatoria and Jonglei states, most of whom are formerly internally displaced persons now returned to their homes in need of economic reintegration.
The project will create aggregation business opportunities for farmers and traders, including women and youth, and provide them with new skills and knowledge, and the agro-processing equipment they need to produce competitive products. Twenty aggregation business centers – complemented by ten seed enterprise groups providing improved seeds to 100 business producer associations – serve as ‘one-stop shops’ where farmers can access extension and information services and be linked to the market to trade their value-added products. Farmer groups joining the aggregation centers will have their products not only tested and quality certified, but also traded with the private sector on their behalf.
“A diversified economy away from oil and long-term growth depends on promoting agribusiness development,” said Athian Ding Athian, Minister of Finance and Planning, expressing deep appreciation to the African Development Bank for its growing assistance to the country. “With the support from our partners, we are building an improved marketing and trade environment for agribusinesses, increasing people’s incomes and creating new jobs, particularly for the youth.”
AfDB Country Manager for South Sudan, Benedict Kanu noted that “with South Sudan being land-locked and experiencing weak urban and peri-urban infrastructure, having good access to lucrative markets especially within the country is a necessary condition for farmers to be profitable, productive and reduce risk of loss of surplus farm produce.” He added that “a key factor explaining Africa’s and indeed South Sudan’s low level of agricultural value addition is the inefficient marketing infrastructure. This prevents farmers and processors from realizing the full value of their produce, even in their raw form.”
Unleash market and trade potential
With 95 percent of the total area considered suitable for agriculture, half of which is prime agricultural land bountiful of natural resources, South Sudan presents an invaluable yet unrealized potential. The effects of continued violence combined with unprecedented flooding have seriously damaged food production, resulting in a huge food import bill.
“Thanks to this generous contribution from the African Development Bank, farmers will move faster from subsistence to commercial agriculture by having access to new technologies, markets and linkages with other services and actors,” said Meshack Malo, FAO Representative in South Sudan. “We are working hand-in-hand with the Government to allow farmers and returnees play a central role in rebuilding the agricultural sector as market-led economy for South Sudan.”
Improving food safety
Despite the country’s agricultural potential and 78 percent of the population employed in agriculture, the sector contributes only one-tenth of the GDP of South Sudan. Agricultural and food products struggle to find their way into international markets due partly to the lack of adequate food quality controls.
Effective food safety and quality control systems are key not only to safeguarding food security, the health and well-being of the people of South Sudan but also to fostering economic development and improving livelihoods by promoting access to domestic, regional and international markets.
FAO and AfDB are partnering with the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the National Bureau of Standards to strengthen the safety and quality of local agricultural products. To this end, two mini testing laboratories will be established in Central and Eastern Equatoria to enable farmers to test and certify their value-added products, particularly cereals, oilseeds and maize, before selling them on various markets.