The five-year project funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB) will help reintegrate former IDPs and increase their productivity and incomes.

Enhance agricultural productivity and boost marketing and trade of agricultural products in South Sudan – these are the main objectives of the project Agricultural Markets, Value Addition and Trade Development (AMVAT) funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB) through a USD 14 million grant to the Government of 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 and the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

The five-year project will help increase the productivity and incomes of almost 20 000 farming families in Central and Eastern Equatoria and Jonglei states. Most of the beneficiaries are former internally-displaced persons, now returned to their homes and in need of economic reintegration. 

AMVAT will create business opportunities and new jobs for farmers and traders, particularly women and youth, and introduce new skills and knowledge. The project will also provide the agro-processing equipment they need to produce competitive products. Twenty aggregation business centres ­– complemented by ten seed enterprise groups providing improved seeds to 100 business producer associations – will 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. The project will also explore opportunities to enhance the nutritional features of several value-added commodities.

For a land-locked country such as South Sudan experiencing weak urban and peri-urban infrastructure, good access to lucrative markets is a necessary condition for farmers to be profitable, productive and reduce risk of loss of surplus farm produce.

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.

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 for both domestic and end consumers. 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.

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Media Contact 

Mattia Romano
Communications Officer
FAO South Sudan
[email protected]
+393275349557
@FAOSouthSudan