President Salva Kiir said in a major speech last month that he would consider bringing another 1000 tractors or more to South Sudan in addition to the 1000 that he already brought, which he said would help counteract the economic impact of sanctions that foreign countries had threatened to impose.

Kiir's remarks about the tractors were not widely reported at the time.

East African IGAD bloc countries and the 'Troika' countries including the United States claimed that their sanctions would target only individuals obstructing peace efforts and not the South Sudanese economy more broadly.

Nonetheless, Salva Kiir announced that the tractors that he had promised to bring into the country would help ensure the country would survive even in conditions of economic isolation.

Kiir's made these remarks during his speech to a crowd at John Garang Mausoleum after the unsuccessful conclusion of peace talks in Addis Ababa early last month. His comments about the tractors were not included in the prepared text of the speech but rather added extemporaneously.

“If people are talking about sanctions against South Sudan, unless they go up and agree with God to stop raining in South Sudan – that means it will be real sanctions – but as long as there will be rain in South Sudan, we can make use of that land, and we can grow what we can eat there, forgetting about anything to be brought from any other country,” he said.

Kiir continued, “Last year I promised that I would bring tractors – it did not materialize. But now as we speak here, those tractors are just here near the river, 1000 of them. You think that if these 1000 are properly managed and used in the agricultural schemes, can they not produce for South Sudan and can we not again bring the same number again, or more, so that we embark on agriculture?”

“These are things that we can do by ourselves.”

An economic policy of self-sufficiency is also called 'autarky'. This means a totally self-sufficient economy on a national scale that does not trade with the outside world.

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South Sudan finance ministry bypassed in multi-million dollar tractor deal (26 April)