A civil society activist has urged President Salva Kiir’s administration to organize a National Agriculture Conference before the start of the upcoming farming season.
Edmund Yakani, the Executive Director of Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO), who appealed to President Kiir in his New Year message, said the goal is to gather perspectives on the key requirements for achieving successful agriculture in South Sudan.
“Your Excellency President, we are appealing and we are calling with due respect and honor for you to commission a national agricultural conference at least in February or March before the agricultural season starts and this should be taken seriously by the national and state agriculture ministers,” he said.
According to Yakani, the conference will get direct views from farmers on what best can be done for South Sudan’s agriculture sector to succeed.
“We should bring the actual farmers to define what they see as a requirement for making agriculture succeed in the year 2025,” he added.
The civil society activist’s appeal came following President Kiir’s message declaring 2025 a year of agriculture and compromise for peace.
However, Yakani, doubted the declaration, saying many announcements have been made by the president but have never been implemented. He advised that such a declaration be tabled in the council of ministers and be adapted as a policy.
“I would like to take this opportunity to welcome the declaration made by President Kiir for the year 2025 as a year for compromise for peace and agriculture and this is a great declaration if we can walk the talk,” he said. “We have seen similar declarations like this but unfortunately, they failed to walk the talk. We hope that with this declaration, you can sanction the council of ministers to adopt it as a working policy which will be translated into action.”
Meanwhile, on the Tumaini Initiative in Kenya, Yakani called on the parties involved to compromise, warning that failure to do so would lead to the collapse of the talks.
“We feel there is a need for compromises in the next round of the Tumaini Initiative by both the government and the opposition. Tumaini will fail when politicians have a culture of rigidity and intolerance,” he said. “We are appealing to both government and opposition in Nairobi to make essential compromises for the best interest of the citizens.”
The activist further called on the presidency to ensure that by October, all necessary conditions for the conduct of elections next year are in place.
“We are appealing to the presidency that at least by October 2025, all the requirements for holding elections in December 2026 are made. These are the unification of forces, judiciary reforms, and transitional justice legislation. We also want to see the constitutional making process moving forward and it must be well funded. We also want to ensure that political parties prepare to participate in the elections and that the population census is done.”