South Sudan’s Central Equatoria State Council of Ministers on Thursday declared 2024 as the year for growing groundnuts.
The declaration came after the State Ministry of Agriculture, Environment and Forestry, presented a memo detailing the groundnuts seed bulk pilot project before the Cabinet.
The State Minister of Information, Dr Andruga Mabe Saverio, told journalists that the ordinary Cabinet meeting, chaired by Governor Augustino Jadalla Wani, selected groundnut as a special crop for this season.
Mabe said in Juba after the weekly Cabinet meeting that groundnut was selected for this second season because it does well in the tropical equatorial lands, in areas like Terekeka to the border with Yirol.
The second planting season starts from August to December.
The minister said the government would offer farmers certified seeds since some varieties bought in the market were poor quality.
Central Equatoria is part of South Sudan’s fertile greenbelt that produces high crop yields. However, due to the 2013 and 2016 conflict across the country, many farmers fled to neighboring countries like Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The people were now voluntarily returning from the camps and embarking on agriculture, to fight food insecurity in the country.