While commemorating World Food Day in Rumbek Tuesday, the capital of Lakes state, the government urged agricultural partners to support local farmers and the fishing industry in the state.
Addressing the masses, Lakes State Governor Rin Tueny Mabor said: “In our plan for 2022-2024, we have to prioritize agriculture to improve food security by encouraging local farmers to focus on large-scale food production for not only consumption but the sale in other states. This is to increase the income level to improve the living conditions and eradicate poverty in Lakes State.”
He called on partners working in the agriculture field to avail support to the local farmers by providing them with improved quality seeds and other inputs to help in transforming production through sustainable practices.
“I am encouraging the private sectors in the state to invest in the fish industry while we have this opportunity in the state. Our major problem is road connectivity as most of the state is cut off from the center and its neighbors due to the poor condition of feeder roads that has been devastated by floods. Our national road of Juba to Bahr el Ghazal highway is also cut-off by the floods but hopefully, construction will start earlier in November 2022,” he said.
The national minister of agriculture, Josephine Joseph Lagu, expressed commitment to ensure that food is available, accessible and affordable to all.
“I will ensure business linkages that will allow value change from production to processing, marketing, and consumption and to create jobs to employ the unemployed young men in the state and elsewhere,” she said.
She appealed to other government institutions and development partners to have a broader investment in food system activities including farm activities to complement primary production and reduce seasonal fluctuations of food in the local market.
The World Food Program (WFP) country director Adeyinka Abadejo encouraged institutions including local partners to join hands in fighting food insecurity in the country.
“Let us leave no one behind, but let’s be food heroes and heroines in South Sudan”, she said.