Efforts to Boost South Sudan Agriculture Found Lagging
Voice of America
JUBA - While people in South Sudan have enjoyed independence for the past 10 years, one longstanding problem – food insecurity – still hangs over the world’s newest nation despite vast areas of arable land.
A World Food Program report published in June said 60% of South Sudan’s population – 7.2 million people – faced food insecurity in the second quarter of 2021. And the nation remains dependent on other countries for 80% of its food supply, according to South Sudan Chamber of Commerce Chairperson Laku Lukang. “Most of the food items such as tomatoes and cabbage come from Uganda. Since independence we don’t have factories and industries for producing cooking oil, sugar,” Lukang told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus. He added, Many people think oil is the only source of money but instead we need to use the oil money to buy tractors and produce enough food and also export (farm products). Diverting oil profits to support agriculture is also a priority of James Boboya, a policy analyst with the Juba-based Institute for Policy and Research.A TV screen shows a file image of North Korea's rocket launch during a news program at a bus terminal in Seoul, South Korea, May 27, 2024. FILE - Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi speaks to reporters in Colombo, July 29, 2023. FILE - A TV screen shows a report of North Korea's spy satellite into orbit with its third launch attempt this year with an image of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Nov. 22, 2023.
Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a camp for internally displaced people in Rafah on May 27, 2024. Fire rages following an Israeli strike on an area designated for displaced Palestinians, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, in this still picture taken from a video, May 26, 2024. Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a camp for internally displaced people in Rafah on May 27, 2024. A member of the bomb squad of the Israeli police collects debris after a rocket fired by Palestinian militants struck in the Israeli city of Herzliya on May 26, 2024.