Radio Miraya
2792: ROUNDTABLE: Impact of Conflict on Food Production and Livelihoods in South Sudan
Hello and welcome to the Roundtable. My name is Sani Martin. We are coming to life from March, Juba. Today we are going to be looking at the impact of conflict on food security and livelihood in South Sudan. That's what we are going to be discussing right here. How has the conflict in the country affected or impacted the food security and livelihood around the country? That's what we are going to be discussing to my panelists right here and we will be having guests from the Ministry of Agriculture, Parliament and also the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. They will all be here discussing a report that has been released based on the finding from the integrated food security phase classification IPC conducted in September in October 2020. That indicates the number of people classified has accurately food insecure. IPC phase 3 and above was projected to increase to 7.1 million which is 56% of the population of this country and during the April to July 2024, lean season. My guests will be telling us more about what is this lean season means and what impact is all this report having and the report comes at the time when there is an increase of poverty in the country, our economic situation in the country is not actually doing well and we will be looking at some of the opportunities identified in this report and also what are the way forward, what can be done and how do we get out of these food insecurity in the country which state is doing good in terms of production and the last farming season. These are all the questions we are going to be putting to our guests right here and you will be joining us later on on 0912069 or 091206950 or you can send us your question to our SMS number 091217141 or you can also visit our Facebook page and drop your comment there we will be putting them right here like I said my name is Sany Martin and let me take this chance to introduce all my guests who are here I am honored to have honorable Joseph Lago who is the national minister of agriculture and food security thank you so much for honoring our invitation I know you have a business schedule thank you and also we have a honorable god James Killa who is the chairperson of standing specialized committee on agriculture and food security in the reconstituted transitional national legislative assembly honorable god you are most welcome to ready me right yeah thank you and also I have a michaq mallow who is the country representative of the food and agriculture organization you are most welcome to ready michaq is Sany Martin and this and right away let's go into the bottom of our discussion here honorable minister you have seen this report the impact of conflict on food security and livelihood in South Sudan in summary before we look at the book actually what is the impact of the 20s, 20s, 20s, 16 and sub-national violence happening across the country when it comes to food production in this country thank you very much for having us this is a good opportunity in fact for us to talk to our people across the country especially you know with the very very negative impact of conflict in our society in our country in our communities South Sudan is not new to conflict we have had a very long history of conflict actually dating back maybe to about 40-50 years in total after the second war and the comprehensive peace agreement the country did stabilize a little bit but of course as we all know the conflict erupted again in 2013 and then 2016 and even at the moment although we are you know somewhat happy that this relative peace across the country you know instability continues to dog us the low level conflict across the country in most part of our country and this has you know a very negative impact on food production conflict displaces communities once communities are displaced from their you know ancestral land and from their you know farming area they they move to areas where they're new and where they may not have land to cultivate so that is actually one of the main problems with conflict conflict also you know forces communities to to lose you know their you know assets you know production you know facilities and production assets you know financial assets to support you know their production and what have you so indeed you know conflict has a very very negative impact on communities and these are the two that i have identified and and then what extent has this conflict impacted on these uh full production to what is it to a larger extent or somehow the gap is being abridged by partners who are supporting agricultural products in this country well to a great deal you know maybe to about 50 percent or so you have seen the report is saying that about 50 percent of our population are food in in in in secure so that means the the the impact of the conflict uh on our communities you know these immense it's great all right yes yes uh micha this report is uh uh ordered by you together with your partners about the impact of conflict on food security and livelihood what are your key findings from this study yeah first as the hundred bar minister said is that you can um relate almost directly correlation between the political dynamics uh times when conflict has picked up and their reduction on on amount of food produced harvested and even lost and cattle rustling uh secondly is that the report also comes up with the issue of the sub national uh conflicts or inter-communal conflicts those if you look at uh over the years now the country at large has become relatively piece peaceful but you find the sub national conflicts or inter-communal conflicts uh rising up and displacing people uh third is that uh there's also the proliferation of uh the small arms that affect in a big way initially within the um uh cattle but now you see that once the that movement moves towards the equatorial then you see that it now uh sucks in uh also the the farmers so that conflict is also uh uh highlighted the economic recession is something that is also huge and uh finally is uh we also seeing conflicts out of the natural resources uh because of the floods and all this this is likely to establish some conflict so these are the main findings of the study okay and um what are some of the distinctive characteristics in this location where these are survey or research or findings were conducted which areas do you cover the entire states or you went to some specific states and uh out of these states which one are the most affected no the the study covers the entire country and looks at uh food food security food insecurity across uh the country but uh you see distinctive futures particularly in areas that are not supposed to be food secure uh take examples of areas like yay uh those are areas in which it's a shame that an area that were uh endured by natural resources particularly land and water and also historically known to be the the food basket of the country you see those aspects uh uh affecting when you look at particularly cattle uh and a number of times in which they they're fights here so those those areas are highlighted uh areas of uh jonglei even centrally luxurious some areas and so the impact of uh of these sub-national conflicts become uh quite significant and uh they reduce the gains that have been made by the the the peace at the national level right yes uh honorable uh god that you are the chairperson of uh the specialized committee on uh agriculture and food security in the national legislative assembly and uh you have a big role to play when it comes to the issue of uh agriculture in this country what are some of the legislations they generally can consider to alleviate this suffering as an MP what is being done in your own constituency yeah thank you very much uh mr. Martin I think uh as uh legislative uh always the parliament it has its own function and roles especially when it comes to uh the specialized uh committee for on agriculture and food security uh this committee actually responsible you see in um adapting uh the budget and also passing policy that already initiated by the national ministry of uh of uh agriculture another thing also uh bills that uh actually initiated and drafted uh by the national ministry of uh agriculture and food security and all this we pass them after a proper scrutiny in the parliament but all in all and as we know that also uh the parliament has uh the the big functions that uh to oversee how the institutions are performing uh in line with the budget that uh uh always we we pass annually and this budget once it pass and become uh a law with its uh uh appropriation act it allowed the national ministry actually to to withdraw uh in line with their code of the budget line and by the end of the day when they're implementing uh whatever plan that the ministry has uh has uh has made at the end of the day we in the specialized committee also uh overseeing how their plan implement according to the budget but is unfortunately uh what is going on uh we pass the budget but when it comes to the national ministry of finance there are a lot of challenges facing the national ministry of agriculture and uh especially when you know when we are passing the budget they are talking about the ceiling although i'm one of the person that uh always disagree with the ceiling uh because they they they they the the financial uh or the envelope that having you know uh we cannot seal it because even the constitution has not stipulated anything about that and even recently we passed the uh uh uh financial management and accountability uh and it's now uh waiting for the ascent by the president to be an act and that one uh it's appear that the ceiling it it is there but we talked and we remove it from that uh uh from from that act okay honorable what you explaining this morning uh a man a farmer who is struggling to uh boost his production and somebody who's left hungry yesterday would not understand what you are saying this morning honestly yeah you know in line with the farmers uh if we see and you were talking about the conflict impact on agriculture and the impact actually going directly to the to the uh to the farmers and the household and also the level of the production and productivity but the farmer himself must know that without the proper budget that done for the agriculture they will not get the sufficient uh assistant by the national ministry that's why i'm asking you are the chairperson of these uh specialized committee uh and the minister of agriculture have not been getting the lion share of the budget what is your role to get with the committee to ensure that at least the minister of agriculture and food security is given at least some kind of priority to boost food uh production in this country that can reduce the gap of our dependence from our u_n_ agencies because uh we are talking about uh over nine million people who are at a risk of uh hunger yes and now there is also a budget deficit from the international communities what is your role yeah as a as a a specialized committee uh as we are struggling who you know with the national ministry of finance because the national ministry of finance depending uh absolutely on oil productions and uh we know that the conflict that in Sudan affected the economy of the country by you know this block of all pipes that transported the oil and getting the money the conflict started one year ago and the budget of these ministers have been going on for the last how many years yes and also the conflict that in our country as you mentioned before it is affecting by the way the the level of the supporting of the farmers by the national ministry of you know the disturbance is up to now there are some areas are not accessible due to rebellions and other things that is going on some of the states really they are a little bit safe and you can feel the peace a little bit relative but uh all in all the areas that suppose to be like what it has been mentioned by uh f_o country presented if like uh yay and other areas in east and west those area the level of production will be very uh good when it comes to agriculture and farmers but uh but the issue of peace i think it is a problem why are the country and the government always purchasing you know like guns and other things to protect the civilian to protect the the entire uh supremacy of the country so this budget for you know uh security is a headache we need actually a relative peace why are people should should should perform uh and uh and farm in a peaceful environment and that things you know it affect the budget itself so budget needs peace so this security it's it's really cost the government all right yes honorable minister picking up from there uh while we we have the chairperson talking about the issue of a budget deficit to your ministry uh take us through for the last uh three budget cycle up to the one we ended uh in uh June this year to what extent using the issue of budget have been affecting the operation of your ministry and also boosting food production in this country and you think uh how much you have been getting is it sufficient enough for you to embark on all the activities you are you have in the ministry thank you again uh well yes um you know as as you all know uh the minister of agriculture and food security is mandated to transform agricultural production in this country from subsistence farming to mechanize commercialize even industrialized agriculture now um for us to be able to transform the uh agriculture uh you know uh sector we do need sufficient funding we need money we need investment and this is key and uh it's the the honorable uh member of parliament uh dr gada has uh you know uh put it uh over the last couple of years and i can certainly say since the establishment since the formation of their revitalized government you know uh transitional government of national unity in 2020 the minister of agriculture and food security has not been receiving sufficient funding uh our budget for 2021 2022 was a very very deficient and roughly i think it was around um nine million us dollar at the time you know equivalent of that in 2022 2023 uh we you know struggled in cabinet and then uh uh eventually in in parliament and our budget was uh you know increased to a reasonable level uh uh it was around uh 50 55 uh billion you uh you know uh south cedony spoun 2020 uh to 2023 budget now that you know translated to roughly about 50 million usd and that was good money if it was released but unfortunately uh the ministry was only released about four percent of that amount which was allocated uh and that was just really barely to cover uh you know uh our you know day-to-day operation so capital expenditure for the ministry was not released in 2022 2023 in 2023 2024 the same scenario we had very good allocation around about the same 50 million usd equivalent uh but uh out of that uh you know uh a huge uh a location again we hardly receive any capital expenditure uh it was almost zero uh let me put it like that yeah so the the it's it's not the allocation the allocation i think is increasing but it's really now the budget execution as the honorable you know member parliament has said which is a problem budget execution from uh the ministry of uh you know finance and planning uh it is not it is not coming through and that is impacting very very negatively on the work of the ministry because without capital uh you know expenditure without capital financing we cannot support farmers we cannot uh support uh you know farmers with uh the correct agricultural inputs traditional inputs which people are using at the moment digging with the holes and what of you is simply inadequate we now need to you know uh have our farmers using you know modern agricultural machineries practice and and and and and other modern uh machineries including digitalization you know in agriculture technology all these things we cannot you know procure them without adequate capital expenditure so capital expenditure is a huge uh uh you know uh handicap uh for us in the agriculture sector to be able to support the farmers across the country to be able to support even our state ministries because we we we at the national ministry we make you know policies and we support you know state ministries we support you know our farmers write down to the county level and boma and boma level okay yeah i want to just add something you know uh or interject the uh president of the republic of south Sudan recently on abrol i remember he stated that in his speech that this country now with the the problem that we had you know with a our crude oil uh with the Sudan so uh this time the president stated very clear that the national ministry of agriculture from the national up to the state level people should impact on agriculture so the president has given a direction or directives that now the budget that we're expecting in the parliament to come at least 10 percent must be there and this is what i was talking when we we invited our minister of agriculture in our specialized committee office and to ensure that this budget this time it has to increase in order to see how this country is going to move and raise the level of production and productivity and also assisting the farmers with the fuel with the tools with the machinery that we are and also the agricultural bank that actually liaising with the national minister of agriculture now they have a budget and also for uh in addition to that the African development bank has already also uh uh approved 50 million dollar also uh of in order to assist the farmers in south so yeah we will be coming to the multiple or series of support that has been coming in as to the government and uh through fao and all these we have all of them here in the studio yes uh micha to what extent is fao supporting farmers in south so than to at least build a gap of uh the people who are food insecure in this country what is fao doing this farming season in which states and which areas i understand last time you are in a will uh trying to support this uh right scheme so what are the major activities fao and partners are doing now to support farmers across the country um yes we are working very closely with the ministry of uh agriculture and food security the ministry of less token fisheries the ministry of environment and the ministry of water and irrigation in specific areas fast is in the area of of production crops uh i want to report here that last year actually 2023 so a big improvement in the country and that is solely because of peace and for the first time south Sudan was able to hit the 1 million mark of production and for the first time the country was able to receive less than 500 uh actually 400 000 metric tons of food aid so to me this was a great success across the country so for the first time after the 2030 so you can see that the production has hit that level and the amount of food aid has also decreased there was a time that food aid in this country was heating up to 700 000 metric tons so if the country continues in this trajectory if there is peace then if we are able to reduce this by 50 000 by 100 000 then in a few years time the country can see itself out the second area in which a few and partners and the ministry is working a lot isn't the fishery sector the fishery sector is a matter of exploiting the the fishery resources because south Sudan is one of the two countries in Africa where fish is dying out of old age so with this for the first time also we see now fish being exported to drc though with a lot of challenges with a lot of challenges but it has started that means that those challenges can be met the main challenge is preservation and the and the fish currently that is exported to drc is is about 90 90 percent dry and some imagine let me tell you when it comes to selling fish the more you dry it you lose that that that that price 90 percent you've lost 90 percent of the price when it's fresh you get a hundred percent yeah so that can tell you how much the country is losing in that area so how is fowl supporting people to make red export fresh fish that that the main challenge is going to be energy because fish is one of the most adaptive animals so it makes sure that if you remove it from water it gets spoiled that's a platform of adaptation so that you don't affect it even in your own house if you don't have a fridge you freeze your gun and you know the the cost of energy and that is where for me the the process that is ongoing now to be able to bring the energy from from Uganda is something that the legislature the national government should really work on because the cost of energy is just too high you know houses yeah and as the minister said commercialization would be very very difficult if the energy cost is at that extent and the third area is is basically the area of livestock we're really working to commercialize this sector we have to move the the debate when i mean in in dawn a meeting and all that immediately you start talking about livestock everyone jumps into the issue of marriage so it is something that we we we we have to find a way of changing and commercializing it but now with the honorable minister of livestock we are working on a on a strategy to commercialize that sector so which are some of the states that witness bump us harvest in the last famine season yeah uh the the leading state for sure was western equatorial uh with western equatorial it had about one hundred and thirty percent that means that you can only consume a hundred percent so the thirty percent we have to find out where it went because we are so sure that they did not consume it so likely it just went to waste uh then you see a great improvement in lakes uh but basically also that you see the issue of peace uh coming up in lakes in lakes state eastern equatorial great improvement particularly in areas of capoeira you see some population that have now totally been graduated out of out of food aid uh i was there personally to look at to look at that and you see sorghum now you see although it's something we now have to solve there are so many bad so kids are not in school trying to chase the the bads away we have to find a way to solve that but now you see it's a new problem but i don't want to say it's a positive one because it's uh uh it can impact children education so those areas you see great great improvement yes honorable minister having had from michaka that there is a great improvement why are we not seeing our markets being flooded with the local produced uh food items from these states lakes state western equatorial the sorghum in capoeira um well yes um uh indeed it is true uh that uh you know uh when we are talking in you know about food insecurity we try to balance it with uh you know the level of production that is actually currently happening in in in the country and so the the point that has been raised by uh mr mallow is uh a very important one for us to know that whereas we are talking of food insecurity on the one hand on the other hand actually you know farmers across the country are trying they're struggling they're doing their best to ensure that you know they increase you know uh agricultural production and they're doing that which is uh good enough but uh okay why are we not seeing it a lot of factors already it has been mentioned the issue of feeder roads the issue of uh value addition you know some of these produce you know they have to be uh transformed uh to you know uh other you know um uh products so that they can be easily you know transported to uh areas that are deficient in food uh production uh marketing so um you know and and these these are areas where we are we are very weak as a country uh and we do need to improve that and i believe you know when we improve value addition we improve uh you know our feeder roads we improve uh marketing strategies and what have you we will be able to to to fill the impact of these uh you know uh surplus which is happening in some parts of the country but i i think uh again we we don't want to uh over uh you know emphasize this because this uh over you know uh production is only limited in some uh you know areas and also with some crops maybe mainly um uh you know sogam and and other cereals uh but when we are talking of food insecurity we also talk of nutrition security so there are other you know crops that we still need to upscale production in that we'll be able to contribute to food security uh oil uh you know uh oil oil crops like um ground nut sesame and then uh crops like uh beans and what have you we still need to increase you know production in this substantially in addition to the um production uh in in in in in cereals which is obviously being recorded uh across the country in addition to that i guess i also i would like to add the issue of climatic change this is another conflict or war you know the country is facing so as as far as we had you know from uh mr malo about the the increment of the food productions you know in metric ton but the climatic change it has also a big effect on the farming and also the productions believe me if the country also prepared in order uh to face the challenges of the climatic change we are going to move on and improve the food security and it will be better than what we are here thank you okay yes still would be honorable uh god uh you have talked about the role of climate change that is very uh important you have already explained that uh but now the question is uh what should be the priority right now has you sit in the parliament for south soudana and making sure that uh there is uh effective policy response to food insecurity that is facing the country because satinias done the line south soudana is still depending on the handards from my when against this and yet there this uh common saying in the country that even if you plant nails in this country kind of grow yeah yeah actually uh you are right you know god has really uh gave uh our country good things that uh fertile soil and this fertile soil we need to utilize it in a good way so some parts are not utilized but uh other legislature also we are looking forward to see uh the national minister of environment to come with a clear policy that uh governing you know the climate change and right now uh uh uh two weeks back uh we had a original meeting uh where uh the yala the east africa community parliament uh we thought and we have been trained also on how to legislate on the issue of climate change and that seems now uh brought to us an idea of sitting down as a committee of agriculture and also a specialized committee on an environment to sit together and start also a strategy guys on how to to resolve this issue and mainly as i mentioned to you it is not the function of our uh committee to do that but the national ministry this is what we are aiming to see them in order to bring this policy otherwise when it comes to budget you know it's going to be a little uh a big problems to face these challenges genuinely so uh as we are moving i think we are moving well and in our in our uh committee also there is goodness that the the conversation has given us a power to table some bills that you are not uh not encroaching with a finance so we are planning to uh draft a bill on a climatic change and that one we call it a climatic change bill and this one will be in our level as the national ministry also preparing the policy because always wherever policy it's ready it gives the the power to drive uh our own bills that governing uh this sector so i think this is one of the good news and then now the lawyers are working in order to bring for us they or develop the draft and bring it to us directly in our specialized committee and we work together hand in hand with the uh committee of environment to do that yes before we hear from the minister i will ask the same question and also uh our representative here uh honorable uh we are the member of parliament and all of you in the parliament are representing your own people in your own constituency when you sit in the parliament and hear in the news that uh more than 40 people are now known to have died in the hunger heat greater people are the administrative area in only two months where authorities have reported does it worry you and what is your role here 40 people dying and these are the people you represented the parliament and nobody's talking about it absolutely it's it's already came in the parliament and the issue or already in our desk and we really condemn that uh you know that yes they condemn the way that we perform our duties as government because without protecting our citizen to avail for them something it is a big challenge for the country because the country losing people it is the people that you know we are governing so without people no government so we are actually that's why the all economic clusters have been requested to come in the parliament to answer for the national minister of agriculture also to to tackle that part how are we going to assist our people to to from hunger what is this what is the parliament specifically uh your docket the that committee what are you doing to ensure that this is addressed and it does not happen again in other parts of the country beside the what has been reported in greater people you know the edge and action the edge and action after we hear from the the ministry concern and the the this actual budget is coming next week into the parliament must include an urgent solution for all this state are affected because not only before i'm sure there are other states yes people are dying so with that with that we need an urgent solution i'm not calling upon i know the our partners you know international they're doing by the way a great job in this country and the first priority is for the government to take care of the citizen the part of the government to complement yeah yes this is what we are aiming for we need the gun the the government to take charge of the responsibility and then this international end use will really complement but we are really seeing the international organization they're doing even above yeah we need you know to balance that okay yes honorable minister the same issue uh over 40 people are reported to have died in the last two months in the greater people at the institute area of hanga and we have not seen any communication from the ministry what is the problem are you aware about it have you had it and why haven't you responded just even two lines expressing concern to the families of those who have lost their loved one that that should be the standard procedures even in the other countries the people should have resigned by now um actually you've talked about the ipc and uh the preparation of ipc includes the ministry of agriculture and food security um so we are a part of this process that comes out with this report you have been uh talking about um but uh let me uh go specifically to the the question you have raised um you know any death you know is uh unacceptable and a death of uh the death of people due to hanga is uh is a tragic it is not acceptable it is not anything that can be and should be condoned um what is the ministry uh doing about it this is where we really have to face the causes of food insecurity production is one of the reasons leading to food insecurity but we do know that also we have food aid humanitarian assistance we know you know which which is being used to to to fill in the gap uh why has this not been the case in people or for instance um now and i think the issue of people and there may be uh one or two other areas in the country it's not so much uh they uh they the the lack of availability of food aid of humanitarian support because where a critical you know uh mass has reached you know uh where government cannot support where the people cannot support themselves this is where we need humanitarian food aid why has it not been possible to get humanitarian food aid to people and i think partly the reason is the uh the the the the issue of uh insecurity uh uh and we know that across the country the areas where it is not even possible for humanitarian access humanitarian assistance vulnerable for how long will the partners continue to fill your own people and yet we have a government in place with baguettes with the full function of government from the state bomber up to the national level well um you know this this this is a problem you know for all of us to address government is obviously doing its part we have you know the comprehensive agriculture master plan to increase production we have our annual budgets to make sure that we increase production but we have this uh you know uh deficiency so where the government is not able to to to support its own people this is where we get in the international community because this government is a part of the international community so the international community also do have a responsibility to make sure they they support member states where and where necessary uh however that does not mean that uh you know uh government is doing nothing no government is doing a lot even lobbying the the international community is the government doing it people talk of how doing this how doing that what they are forgetting is that it is the ministry that is lobbying for defense which is being used by fau so this is why government is also working but specific issues uh uh and areas like that of people are you know a combination of factors and they they they you know uh intra communal conflict there is a major cause of uh you know uh luck of uh you know agricultural uh production the insecurity cartoon rasheling water for you displacement of communities how can people sit and cultivate when they are on the move all the time yeah when they are on the move all the time so this is where the the community the local administration and the government you know need to sit down and ensure that you know areas like people do have some stability because without stability there is nothing government will do to make sure that you know the people of those specific areas can sit down and produce okay so everyone really needs to do their part here not just government your community the international community all of us and we should stop people from dying from hunger you know in addition to that you know before it's uh it's an administrative area compared to the state they have similar entity where they they are they are having their own constitution governing them at the state and they have also equivalent to minister same of agriculture the only thing that i think lacking until you know 40 people you know to lose them i'm sure the we these people they haven't died in one day in one minute in one second the government there there is a government there these government they should report from the beginning that's why these intergovernmental linkages it is there that's why they're silent and we do not hear until 40 that's why i was asking i ask you earlier you have members of parliament representing that part of the country and you also as members of parliament you are here ears on the ground why did it take you a very long time to even act as an oversight body of the government the issue as i mentioned to you this government they supposed to report but unfortunately there is no even a written or a verbal verbal report came from before atmosphere and this is the sad news that i'm telling you you know before this otherwise as you mentioned we have really representative from people but this representative i haven't hear anything okay but what i i got as somebody in charge of agriculture there are some hearing talk and also in the radio news but it but as i mentioned to you from the beginning from the first person dying we need to hear you know from before atmosphere from other states you know you are the chairperson you are the chairperson you are like a father in the house when you hear my mother actually why don't you raise an alarm as a chairperson why didn't you raise an alarm you know always in the parliament we do not act on rumors always always we need an official report where the specialized committee go and put it on but to hear rumour rumour rumour is not helping that's why i'm emphasizing that whatever administrative area whatever states whatever problem arise they should report quickly not to wait until many people will lose this country has lost a lot of people okay during conflict during we cannot even lose people because of hunger and that is unfortunate before we hear from micha about the rest from the partners the humanitarian partners still vulnerable minister are we expecting the hunger situation to continue to worsen and what is your forecast for the coming months as you see it in the ministry and partners well you know we have all heard about you know looming floods and this is clearly connected to the climatic changes you know countries you know are experiencing across the world and we know that when there is flooding and over the last three four years up to six or eight you know states in our country have you know been devastated by floods so floods will inevitably you know bring you know it will cause you know lack of production so as we you know anticipating the flood definitely we also have to look at you know the the impact of this flooding on food security and it will it it will happen it will be there how to to what extent or the level of you know the impact of flood is well from the information we are receiving it's going to be worse than the you know impact of floods we have seen over the last three four years so we are actually you know you know preparing for for for you know there was compared to you know over the last three or four years so what does that mean in practical terms of course we are not waiting for the flood to come you know and and overwhelm us the minister of agriculture and food security the ministry of you know humanitarian affairs and disaster management our you know development partners we have already prepared a plan to you know to you know confront the you know flood that we are expecting and once you know the flood you know you know alert you know hits the country i think quickly government and partners will be able to mobilize the necessary support that affected communities across the country will be requiring and we are expecting you know about you know maybe three three quarters of you know the the the the country to be to be affected okay yeah okay we have seen committees moving from state to state of recent okay misshaka how much effort and in what form the humanitarian partners putting in response to these hunger crisis in the country including you and fau yeah uh first on the on the on the question that you asked about about this uh this death definitely any death uh it's it's very regrettable uh but you will see that these are are along the conflict hotspots and uh these conflict hotspots uh from the report you are mentioning it already identifies 15 areas that uh like hotspots that can be divided into generally three one is a juggler area in which we find five areas we together national government partners and local government needs to look at those areas of bar south a cobra twig east and duke and then we when we come to the greater people administrative areas areas of people for charla gumuru lock on your there's a some some of the hotspot and then within central culture we have to look at yay we have to look at lander morobo kajoke jittera kekka these are areas in which are hotspot and uh when it comes to this this deaths when it comes to food security when uh when a death is reported due to anger just like doctors do a post-mortem we also undertake a post-mortem and generally it can be regarded into four areas why did you die out of anger was it because of availability was it because of access that there was even food that your neighbors please but your neighbor could not allow you to go and eat was it because of uh of stability you are not able to get breakfast lunch supper over a long time or was it because of utilization whereby even rich people sometimes die because you're eating but your body is not your sick it cannot utilize it so and that's where you find that in these areas a lot of those deaths if they occur could be mostly because of access because of fighting you you cannot move to a nearby area where there is some food either your relatives or something so the matter of access and us looking keenly into into this and doing a post-mortem as you are or as you're saying about this foot and are they happening at the community level or at a household level a few households there and what is the problem so that form of post-mortem is very very important so that these cases are untucked and understood so that we can be able to take the necessary steps okay and honorable minister what is the government doing right now or what kind of support is the ministry of agriculture doing to support or what kind of support are you giving to farmers maybe cooperative organized farmers individual farmers at a state level national level here to ensure that you boast food security and the ministry of agriculture have been getting a lot of support a lot of money from the partners an example is just last month um in the ministry of finance and planning and uh micha was there i was also there uh there was an mo you that was signed at the tune of forty six point two million us dollars uh that's going to support climate adopted seeds like sogam and also last year the world bank actually this year the world bank also uh south so then i received 400 in the sat a million us dollars to support health agriculture uh in this country but all these are not being given uh to you we don't see any impact on the ground what's happening where's the money going why is the project the money is meant for is not being implemented and where are they being implemented okay thank you very much uh for this uh question uh indeed uh it is true uh the ministry of agriculture and food security has over the last four years really mobilized funds through our development partners through uh donors to ensure that you know we support the agriculture sector um uh as uh we as as as we speak uh i think uh roughly i can say for setting that the ministry of agriculture on behalf of the government has solicited um you know substantial amount of money uh for various projects in the country unfortunately most of these projects are not being run directly from the ministry of agriculture and food security we secure the funding to support our people but the money which you witness it's signing it will not come to the ministry of agriculture this money whether it is from the world bank or from the african development bank or from uh in fact or from the anyway european union is not funding us at the moment and of course we want them to come on board the us is not funding us at the moment we want them to come on board this money goes to what is called implementing partners and file for instance is one of our main implementing partners yeah we have you know we have others the money goes to them the project belongs to the government but the money goes to uh the implementing partners who will intern uh you know um uh you know bring other uh NGOs on board to now implement these projects on the ground so when you go to the today to the states to the bombers to the country uh you know uh to the countries everyone knows that there are a lot of NGOs doing this agriculture work that agriculture work but these NGOs are actually implementing these projects on behalf of the main implementing partners which is FOW and FOW is implementing these projects on behalf of the government yeah so these are government projects happening on the ground people need to know this but they're not feeling the impact is a question why are we not feeling the impact in terms of uh food production and in terms of uh reducing the the presence of basic commodities in the market and still also we see food being imported from countries outside and now anybody in countries rather yes we are not selling the impact as we would like to see in the ministry of agriculture you know is you know shares in this frustration um but one of the reasons why we are not seeing the impact of uh you know these uh you know funds uh is because a lot of this money goes in uh operation costs yeah operation costs of the implementing partners operation costs of the NGOs on the ground who are doing this implementation so if we are donated maybe for let me say for 40 million USD okay um we have two or three layers of implementing partners these people the implementing partners are not going to get new money from somewhere to do the projects they will take the money from the allocated amount of 40 million so we we we we we you know i i don't have the the accurate figure to for sure say maybe half of this money goes for operation costs or one quote a ghost for pre-fiction costs but what i can for certain say that if government was implementing these projects directly we'll be able to have greater impact on the ground actually we will come back to you later on we have to cross to the next hour i will come back to you and find out from you uh whether the government and your ministry is satisfied with this project being implemented by the partners and also we get a response from a file with here how many projects actually have been implemented with this amount people need to know accountability right here listening to the round table my name is sanny martin and shetley we will be taking your calls on 0 9 1 2 0 6 20 79 or 0 9 1 2 0 6 29 50 those are all our lines we can also send us your question to our SMS number 0 9 1 2 1 7 7 1 4 1 those are all our lines we can get in touch with us and ask you our questions right here hello and welcome to the second hour of the round table my name is sanny martin and we are discussing the impact of conflict and food security and livelihood in the country and also the multiple supports the donors have been giving to the government to boast food production in the country have had from my three guests here that at least according to micha kumaro who is the food and agriculture organization country representative he says there is a significant improve in food production in the country he mentioned example of what's in a cartoria let's state and eastern a cartoria state where in eastern a cartoria there is at least an increase in food production that is a sorghum they are doing well there and also the minister of the national minister of agriculture and food security says they are working very hard to ensure that there is enough to support farmers across the country together with the partners if you have just joined us right now we have three guests here in the studio i have Honorable Josephine Lago the national minister of agriculture and food security Honorable Professor Gada James who is the chairperson standing specialized committee on agriculture and food security in the transitional national legislative assembly we have micha kumaro food and agriculture organization country representative and our line should be open to you shortly where you can call us on 091 to 069 or you can also send us your comment via our facebook page and i will be reading all your comments as they come in right here yes Honorable Minister before we went for a break you are talking about this support by your partners being managed also by your partners and this partners go on and subcontracts on people to implement the project on their behalf and most of the funding goes to a personal cost i ask is the government is the minister of agriculture are you satisfied with the kind of project being implemented by this partners and the money that was given and meant for that project so far can you now go to the committee in the parliament and say yes we received such kind of amount and it was managed by fau for example and we we identified these projects and it was implemented in one two three four areas that we are satisfied our people can now benefit from this because the reason is why this money is being given is to support your the ministry and also create employment for the local people who are around there yes and are we satisfied with the projects and how the projects are being implemented obviously we have concerns which we have raised with our implementing partners and collectively we are trying to address you know some of these problems that have a reason but i don't want to point you know an accusing finger i think whatever support that we get from the development partners uh from our uh you know international uh partners if we do not address actually the root causes of uh food insecurity whatever the partners bring on board will also not really uh you know materialize as much so on our side we still need to address the issue of insecurity we need to address the issue of you know feed the roads we need to address the issue of you know energy for commercial agriculture we need to address the issue of provision of machineries capacity building uh marketing and so forth and so forth this we have to address this thing now the uh projects being provided uh you know uh or being implemented there are quite a few um you know i will mention a few is that i'm sure a measure will also help out with we'll do it some of the projects uh we have uh you know a project called uh ELRP which is uh specifically concerning uh locus uh you know uh combating locus uh infestation in the country where uh in in in the areas where locus uh prevalent uh maybe eastern equatorial is one uh jungler is another uh northern bajal gazal and um uh rank up and i uh area you know they they the areas where locus are uh you know uh are a problem then we have another project uh called uh breath on this one is being supported by african development bank and we uh through this project we are trying to revitalize uh the awiel rice scheme and we have another project called ANVAT which is much more about food uh uh value addition uh processing uh and and supporting you know farmers to you know be able to uh transform their produce so that you know they can sell it for more and then we have another project called uh you know Ralf that is resilient agricultural livelihood uh project and and and so forth all these projects uh have uh you know uh various activities involved in them some of them actually support of uh you know the vulnerable people with uh what we call cash for work they are given some work uh you know uh community based work uh and and then they are given some money in in uh in return some of these projects provide micro financing you know uh for the communities to support either agriculture production or whatever livelihood you know they are involved in etc etc now as i said a a lot of the funds for this project really go for uh you know operational funds are we happy with that no we are not we would like to see for instance more involvement of uh you know the government at the national as well as state and county levels involved in the implementation of these projects if we can achieve that i think we'll be able to see more results on the ground at the moment um you know they they they they implementing uh partners and the NGOs contracted to do these projects um uh are they the the main implementers but we are working with our implementing partners like FAO to make sure that we integrated activities of the the the the partners with that of uh the uh government right starting from the national level down to uh county level we believe that if we can do that we'll be able to see more benefit more results uh on the ground sensitizing involved in an involvement of the communities at the at the uh you know county and boomer and payam level is also another area which you know we are working on and uh uh and i think also uh you know provision of better agricultural inputs for the farmers that is another area that we are also addressing provision of extension farmers today farmers this is also another area where we are working together uh improving road access is another area we are working in marketing and so forth so we are trying to address a number of areas and these these are things you know which will take time for us to do uh five years two years it's not sufficient so what is the duration of these uh project you have mentioned and when are they finishing or have they been completed and handled about you and secondly why is the government not managing the money the funding is there trust deficit does the donors believe that if the money is given to the government it will be singled and uh corrupt uh well you know in the neighboring countries uh most of these projects are directly managed by the governments uh uh in our case uh of course they have been concerns and uh but we in the ministry we have been you know very very open about this and we say yes you know maybe we have made mistakes but it doesn't mean that now you know we should not be supported let us be supported through these projects we'll be able to build our capacity including better management of the finance and this is what is happening so in in in in in uh we hope that you know eventually this will be rolled out eventually as we participate in the implementation of these projects we build our capacity including money management capacity the donors will you know now gain the trust and then you know maybe in two or three years time allow us actually now to implement these projects ourselves maybe they don't have a feeling one one's beaten twice shy yes i mean yes thank you once again i think uh the issue of uh international support that the national ministry of agriculture getting first of all you know as a country uh we supposed to have a policy and that policy it govern even those donors they're donating for us the agricultural act itself if it is there it is the one will govern and restrict whoever want to operate in our country you know by bringing or donating fund in Rwanda i remember in 2009 I had what uh the president of Rwanda say Paul Kagame for angels including the UN you know those UN uh angels are supporting the government if the government are well prepared having their own policy in place all acts in and laws in place whoever come in suppose to reveal how much they are going to inject and that one should be governed by the government itself but in the absence of this essential and important things where these international end-use they can do what they can they they want to do so the only thing to dictate on other uh implementers you know or uh donors the government itself so putting things in place believe me or not it will organize them we need to see this fund you know it is not just uh supporting the resilience agricultural and livelihood we want to see the seeds itself other people are complaining that other seeds imported they are not germinating and it came into our notice that's why the national ministry should think part of this fund is supposed to be given to uh to create something like a seeds bank where the seed itself should be uh checked by our bureau of standards whether these seeds are germinating or not so the quality and quality assurance i think it's very important that our national ministry should look into that otherwise believe me or not whatever we are supporting we are saying we are supporting the farmers farmers need to be supported even up to the level when they are investing when they have a thing like in rank and apanae there are a lot of crops it's produced but we need also to have a policy to restrict even our international end-use to purchase from these people and utilize it from our local here to to other states that they don't have and these things need a proper policy to govern that so that's why i was asking uh that is the role of the MPs and uh also if people listening to you they will say uh the MPs in this country are not even serious if you look just here then you go under the parliament you see on the tv every day certain government spending against is appearing before certain committees in the parliament to answer have we ever taken an initiative to some on the minister or the minister of agriculture to come and appear before you and you raise all these concerns and even ask the discussion why are you not managing these funds being given to to you by the donors what is the problem because i understand on and above even you if you have been paying your daughter who is 18 years to the university and since in the second year being have bachelor's and the first time you paid school fees to you gave her to go and pay in the bank she did not bring her the bank slip when you were asking so that's uh dodging you so you have to think twice and say no i think it is not better for me i pay direct the bank and only give her the bank slip and to take the university yeah let me answer you you know the genesis of these problems you know instability you know in in government with money this means no for the you know minister over minister yes appointment yeah remove appointment remove that you know instability it's really sometimes hinder okay the implementation of any any plan another things you know going from you know in 2005 when we are starting yeah up to when we separated from Sudan and we have our own government or our own country that after the independence in 2011 satineas down the line you know with you if you can't the ministers that uh uh appointee and gun they are it's not a static here so that genesis i think need a minister of agriculture at least to get a an humble time why are the ministers should plan and have but we haven't taken a crack in the ministry we have our technocrats but the technocrats as as as as they are planning for example to make a policy now the policy for the draft policy for for for the minister of agriculture it is there but it's a draft another you know issue arise during the hardship time the minister of agriculture again i'm automating with the national minister of a live stock another rural development in one again is splitting into two so many things i'm seeing other ministries like the minister of life is top for example yeah they prepared the policy the policy submitted to the parliament suddenly during the hardship the economic hardship time he changed the amalgamate the minister it is really disruption you know of of the ministry itself all right but as we are planning you know always we are not starting from scratch we're encouraging the national minister of agriculture to do that and plan well all right in order you know with the system of the international partners uh international uh organization and also herself in her ministry with these technocrats to come up with the police up really a policy that policy believe me or not it will help so we cannot say it is late there is nothing late okay just we start our end position yes micha you have a lot of uh uh clarification to make and briefly so that we also give stands for our listeners to call in and ask and ask your uh use questions these projects the one the minister mentioned and that line uh where are we who eat them is there any success story you can uh outline our listeners uh today and the issue of uh the seeds when you bring in the seeds uh what is the quality of the seeds in this uh the one you import from outside yeah thanks so much uh for me from where i sit i really believe that there has been quite some success particularly in the agriculture sector i can i can tell you first without any fear of contradiction that now the south Sudanese are not heavily fed through food aid this i can tell you the number of months that a south Sudanese is now eating and there are many south Sudanese families now as we speak that are not consuming food aid at all when we look at even the the the areas that are consuming food aid and even the the the food aid being given by our sister agency wp it has reduced to less than six months so many south Sudanese now so now many south Sudanese i can tell you without any fear of contradiction if we counted them those that are eating the food aid in for how many months and how many kilos per day it has reduced and that is something that is happening and if peace can be in this country which is the main limiting factor the south Sudanese will produce their own food the one million metric ton produced was produced from about four percent of the entire land four percent four percent so i can tell you that it may not be right and it is not right to believe that a majority of south Sudanese are fed through food aid now if this piece holds so that people are not displaced displaced and access is is done now just just go after this road was constructed to bar yeah look at that deep in reduction of of of increase in food security why simply because of access access i was in in yambio and there we gave seeds i found 13 000 water mellow just city certain thousand 13 000 is it the one that was brought last month you just brought i took the if your truck because i felt this is bad that truck was able to take 3500 watermelon and we brought here to jubah to jubah i told them you guys are coming from yambio please sell this at throwaway price it was sold at one dollar and we got those one meter watermelon at 39 kilo one one so those people made three thousand dollars and went back together so the watermelon that was brought for me yambio made three thousand dollars i'm telling you at one dollar that's a throwaway price and uh new people were there they come to that second uh just four years ago when i came to this country the testing of diseases and dr gada will tell you we did not have a laboratory to test now the lab is there for livestock we are testing 60 percent of our diseases here we used to send it to kena in south african so there are some gains recently we also now came up with a mark of quality through the bureau of standards because there are some products that now we are identifying that are ready for export for instance honey and she about when you go today to the un uh here super supermarket you will find the product of she a better from women of lakes to me this is a success we'll make the small market see this come to this supermarket it has passed the international standard it's baby steps that they are being made seeds five years ago afio could only find eight percent of seeds that could be available for sale now 2023 we've been able to buy from local sale about 32 percent and the the most interesting fact was that the number one supply was a woman yeah making about two hundred thousand dollars just from afio alone one woman so for me there are certain steps that are being made that are increasing now if you look at most of the NGOs and even the UN organization the cash programming has increased why has cash programming increased this is because now people can find local things to buy it has also its disadvantage because the price of sogham increases immediately the cash programming is there now there is more cash programming than bringing in and you find i was telling young people in the university complaining about the price of sogham i say now produce sogham so that you can you can sell at those high prices okay instead of saying it's the price is going on if you are a producer produce it sell it because the price of sogham is really increasing almost at the same proportion okay so i as a minister said i agree that there are areas that we need to work on particularly for me is the high cost uh for instance i was just seeing the cost of us sending seeds to poshala now even just going to rank after the sudan because sometimes you used to bring things through sudan yeah yeah now i was i was telling the honorable minister that we had a land cruise that we bring it from japan to here it takes three months but to take it to to rank is another five months so coming from japan to do by small chief and i'm from here to rank and it passes through the sea because the sea is is is is is soft it goes into Kenya uh-huh goes into Uganda and comes to jubah but now to move it from jubah after now they are bae and going through yeah it's it's a problem so those challenges can easily make things difficult all right yes yes this is where the blame goes to the national minister of fraud uh-huh where when they are planning they're supposed to have a priorities in order to assist you know farmers to access the market okay so road like a apanail you know a north and apanail like rank supposed to be connected and give give priorities this is what we we shouted last year on the minister of road okay as far as as as the accessibility you know and giving priorities to other areas where they fit the center okay the foot honorable minister what happened to the comprehensive agricultural master plan where are we with that plan it was a very nice document i we followed it up from day one up to when it was passed in the parliament and all these and if you look at the content of these comprehensive agricultural master plan if you utilize an implemented would have been far by now what happened um yes the the agriculture master plan document uh it's still there uh it's actually you know the strategy uh the ministry of agriculture uh is implementing on behalf of uh the government uh this uh you know uh comprehensive agriculture master plan is developed to allows for a duration of uh 25 years its implementation should have started in 2015 uh up to 2040 um now uh as we have been saying here all alone they have been challenges and one of the main challenge for the implementation of the comprehensive agricultural master plan was the conflict that erupted in 2013 and then uh 2016 this disrupted you know the implementation of the agriculture master plan the second thing which came in after the disruption of peace was the issue of um uh what what what is it you know the austerity austerity measures austerity measures affected you know budgets of the minister of agriculture uh and food security so uh you know somehow the implementation of the agriculture master plan uh you know uh was halted but um I can say that actually we are implementing the uh the agriculture master plan by phases you know the first phase is that of recovery uh most of our projects are actually linked to the first phase of uh the agriculture master plan implementation the phase of recovery as well as now we're moving into the the phase of our resilience uh you know creation so the agriculture master plan actually is being implemented what we now need really is you know to increase you know uh uh funding uh to the agriculture uh sector to the agriculture agriculture ministry uh as uh you know uh already mentioned by uh the honorable uh uh dr gada the president of the republic has come out clearly now telling the whole country that from this year onwards we must increase agriculture production and that means we should also increase you know funding today's sector the agriculture master plan was planned with the intention that it was going to receive the 10 percent of a budget allocation uh as i've said you know our budget allocation has been far less than uh this 10 percent and we need to increase it to that level so that we can actually implement at least half of uh you know the uh agriculture master plan the primary you know uh i think uh focus of the agriculture plan really is you know creation of uh agriculture infrastructure including irrigation now we are relying on rain fed agriculture that is unstable and you know the the climate uh you know uh change is is disrupting the rainfall pattern so we cannot continue to rely on that that's why we need you know to develop you know uh you know irrigation system that needs a lot of money bringing in machineries to commercialize agriculture that needs money building the capacity of uh you know agriculture you know uh experts across the country right starting from university down to extension workers down you know to uh country level uh you know uh strengthening the um the um plan protection sector because we are talking of production production but if we don't protect the prop uh the crops you know uh and then uh you know uh also the uh value addition and then also what are the uh the donner vulnerable the lady has said and you know their post-harvest activities all this and these are all included in the agriculture master plan we are implementing it but we could do more with more funding and stability in the country peace and stability thank you so much vulnerable years right now our lines are open you can call us on 0-9-1-20-6-20-7 or 0-9-1-20-6-29-50 or 0-9-2-9-6-8-6-2-9-7 send us your comment our SMS number 0-9-1-2-1-7-7-1-4-1 those are all our lines you can get in touch or you can also uh post your questions via our uh facebook page and i will be reading some of them as they continue right here coming in and uh we have in this today here uh horrible uh Joseph in Lago national minister of agriculture and food security we have a honorable professor god james chaperson standing specialized committee on agriculture and food security national legislative assembly micha kumalo food and agriculture organization country representative and we are discussing the impact of conflict and food security and a livelihood you have had from them now is your turn to call us and ask you a question as some of you are already sending in uh your questions and uh let me begin with our SMS machine this is coming from uh dang in monarchy here in gibber and he says my question goes to honorable Joseph in Lago minister of agriculture and the food security the UN SDG goal number two aims to end hunger and all forms of malnutrition by 2030 how far is south done with this any progress is south done anywhere at the meeting this goal of uh UN SDG number two and that's uh from uh dang in uh jubber here another question here is coming from um jackson jackson is writing from uh tumping also and he says my question goes to the uh minister of agriculture has the national minister of agriculture and food security what national initiatives are being implemented for the people of south so then right now apart from partners which project is the ministry uh embarking on right now uh that will support food production in the coming year as from jackson here in tumping uh another question here is coming in from um also I think non-name uh this is very important I should ask uh says the honorable minister what is the government doing to redeem its name to to earn donors trust where they will give you the money and then you be the one to run your project and avoid issues like we have concerns we have concerns there's no name uh yes and uh another SMS CM is coming from a river county of central gothora state uh lubang lubang is saying honorable minister uh I would like to suggest you today why don't you use the inmates who are in prison staying idle and yet to complain that they want money use them to embark on agriculture you can even lies with the ministry of interior to open up uh farms that belongs to the ministry of agriculture and use them to produce enough food is that a good idea to you that's from lubang yes um before our lines are open, nationalable minister you can answer these questions and uh we're gone okay um all right uh thank you very much uh the first one uh how far is south Sudan uh from uh meeting the SDG SDG goal number two which is a reduction of uh hunger or elimination of uh hunger of course they they they they they target and the intention of uh the government is to uh eliminate hunger not just reduce it you know to eliminate hunger uh you know by uh 2030 this is our goal this is our intention and we are working towards that that's why we developed a comprehensive agricultural master plan to ensure that you know we eliminate hunger and that actually we even produce surplus you know to sell you know domestically as well as uh you know uh externally but why is it that we have not been able to achieve this you know uh if they listen the the the the the person who has asked question has been following we have actually been you know identify identifying a number of uh you know factors that has limited us as a country to increase agricultural production um but um uh I think uh we have uh six more years to go uh recently uh the uh government has been able to uh secure you know uh funding uh from uh African uh development bank so in collaboration with our partners this particular you know uh funding is going to help us to upscale production that is to increase production in three specific crops plus fishery we are aiming to increase production in uh sorghum pro pro production um and uh mean uh what is it uh sesame uh production and rice production we're already working you know to revitalize our will rise scheme we are if uh you know we get this fund within the next two or so yes we hope to substantially increase uh you know production in uh sorghum as you have heard from uh defiled representative already actually you know uh production of of sorghum you know has increased uh substantially across the country so we are going to be able to increase that plus sesame that you know uh complement nutrition uh you know security we'll be able to uh you know increase uh you know uh production uh uh of sesame uh you know uh the sesame uh crop so uh and then fishery fisheries is important because it is going to complement uh nutrition so that we we we combat also malnutrition and so forth and so forth so yes we we have this specific plan which will enable us i believe you know substantially really to increase production in these three areas if we can increase production in sorghum pro you know your office of sorghum rise uh and then maybe other staple uh crops like maize and and and vegetables and what have you across the country in two to three years we should be able to you know eliminate hunger okay in the in the country but what do we need to do that we need peace we need more money we are getting money from donors but we need now government you know to put in substantial amount of money as promised by the president of the republic and then the question of uh rising the ministry of interior to use the image oh yes oh yeah that is a brilliant uh you know idea actually uh and the ministry is this is what we are doing already we are organizing farmers you know into groups we have farmers group we have cooperatives and we are reaching out to the organized forces because they are already organized so it will be very very easy to tap into the you know uh the uh you know uh police force to tap into the um the uh you know the inmates uh being taught even today today sspdf you know and you know churches because churches are also organized so we are aiming to to to to tap into the all organized forces in the country all right you know to to to to to you know come in and contribute in you know in food production all right it will be easier for us to support groups who are already ready than supporting individuals one by one all right so idea and we'll take it up thank you so much yes you can call us right now and uh those of you who sent your questions via our SMS number they are all answered hello to me that Andrea Camila oh i'm calling in for our areas okay Andrea go ahead you their question i will come vulnerable but doesn't feel like going in Syria and my sex model the country i got a representative of abo for last the member of parliament this morning okay my question goes directly to both of them and i will ask them a question one by mr mallow true should be said has your you are now the abo or representative in is here there there is some kids which are not eliminated perhaps you said you you do test them and you know the five of them they are going to to be to be illuminated i myself and a farmer i'm a farmer and i do the ship some heat the the life of uh heat like uh like those of abo this is good in here in congressman though when i slammed them they did not dominate it otherwise they should have to verify and bring up the quantity heat this the the question to protect mallow i have the question to honorable just in lago honorable just in lago tindy one of our stability there is no uh agricultural farm which opening by you while physical year but it is allocated to you is this money goes your pocket and some people benefiting into or look because physical year budget is coming out with and there is no palm totality which opened up by by minister of the culture of national and state level okay so in the last question there is a member of parliament you have a result for three months one day one time i never seen a member of parliament representing with this context this context is here you know our location here those uh those uh those three months for a judge you are going to make them there in samotee and you make them a brute otherwise you should have to come to us here and and see what's facing us okay thank you so much hello did you hear that hello hello yes your name okay go ahead to the question in the first place i would like just to welcome our guests in this video of uh mirai fm i have only two questions to to ask them the first one is i remember the minister of agriculture brought digit drugs in this side of uh luri but now they are getting his spoils without even the they they're what to be used as for the for the tools in agriculture i don't know why is it so like that and now we are crying there's no food there's no food but they brought for us the the the trucks to be used for their food this is one number two is i wanted to ask also the in the national assembly i don't know really what are they really doing at least because now we are the one who selected who vote for them or they are the one presenting as there anything they don't want to discuss and then to come out with an important issue for us but now i don't know whether they if they are moving around us in you in a neighboring counties like Uganda Kenya they can also see they used to focus if this education if this is the issue of agriculture if it is what they have to talk and they come out with the with the topic uh with the input and okay to lead these nations thank you all right hello everybody go ahead John Tanya i'm happy that you are the one moderating this and i have three questions and before doing that there are a number of projects that i would take you through so that you know the whole number minita uh can understand you know we have resilient agriculture livelihood project this is it's a 2.5 million funding project from the well bank and it's now being implemented by it found it started from 2021 and you will go up to 2026 number two of the project under the same ministry the south then livelihoods and resilient project is a 22.7 million dollar being funded by international fund for agricultural development and that government and the government of south then it is currently being implemented by vsf germany and actions accurate uh after the health international this is a six year project which is started from 2021 and it will aim in 2027 number three project is a productive safety net for social economic project this is a 129 million dollar from the well bank and this is a four-year project which is started from 2022 and it will aim in 2026 it is currently being implemented by units the last project and there are some of them either resilient through agriculture south then funded by uf8 and it's being implemented by die die is an international company either uk based company and there are so many other projects under the ministry all these number of projects that have written i mean i have read to you i'm meant to strengthen the capacity of farmers and the organization to improve agriculture production and productivity there comes the question and you have stolen my question and imagine when you ask the whole number minister earlier on that why are we not seeing our market being flooded with agriculture produced in the areas where these projects are being implemented minister has to respond to that okay she was talking about the question of having funded channel through implementing partners rather than the government but they are not monetary number two what do you do one room of minister at the ministry to make sure that this implementing partners you also seem to be complaining i kept on their toes to make sure that they do implementation exactly last question goes to to michaq malo michaq malo diffi that second time we know to have interacted on phone with you i remember you are also being hosted in similar discussion so the question to you is why do you as implementing partners because you you are now representing other implementing partners if they were there they would have answered this question as well why do you as implementing partners delayed recruitment process for national staff for up to one year and they are not and the same ministry does not monitor whether their national staff are recruited in this project so that they get the skill and they make sure that they are also monitoring the project on behalf of their community thank you thank you so much going from we have a couple of them here and also we have to squeeze them within in seven minutes because we have our time is coming to an end honorable minister you have a couple who does the monitoring and the same question i asked earlier why is the markets not being flooded by our local produce and then there was um another question from tambra about the practice in luri i think they were brought long long long time ago and i is the last time i passed there some of them are no more there that's another question from tambra and there was another one from andrea camilo that uh why is the minister of agriculture not opening their own farms across the country if you can answer that briefly briefly because you don't have much time okay thank you very much let me go to the first question which is why the ministry has not opened farms across the country actually the mandate of the ministry is not to be opening farms across the country our mandate is to develop agricultural strategies and policies and these strategies and policies are in place some of the policies are being revised new ones are being developed the the the the mandate of the ministry is to assist farmers we are to assist them not do the production for them we assist them with a number of things we assist them with inputs through our development partners and this is one of the key things which the the food and agriculture organization is doing on on on on behalf of the government we assist farmers to ensure that they use good agricultural you know practices good agronomic practices through the the the provision of extension workers we assist farmers to ensure that you know they they use the good you know post-haves you know strategies to ensure that you know they do not suffer losses at that level so the ministry of agriculture and food security at the national level also support state ministries of agriculture and food security and we are we are doing that we support you know agricultural of you know offices at the county level this is our work well we could we could open demonstration farms and we have that plan so that you know we can then you know lead by example and we have written to all the ten governors plus the three administrative areas to provide a land I think about 25,000 you know acres of land for the national ministry of agriculture and food security to establish demonstration farms and this demonstration farms will be used for training purposes of course you know some of the surplus from that can go into the market but the sole purpose of the demonstration farm will be you know how to train farmers so students can come and learn from there farmers can come and learn from there and so forth and so forth so for our friends the truck has been worried okay they tracked us in lury this has been one of the the main problems you know affecting you know the use of tractors these tractors were you know you know procured in in in the country but I think what was neglected was you know provision of spare parts for the tractors so that's why you see most of them are lying you know redundant it is used because of lack of spare parts and we also have you know difficulties with the you know tractor operators I don't think you know this is something that was you know taken into account when the tractors were purchased okay monitoring of these projects yes yes okay monitoring of these projects yes yeah I you know I need to you know acknowledge that you know this person is well versed about the projects which you know we are running you know in the ministry but look if you followed my explanation these projects are implemented by third parties implementing for partners like fau is fau accountable to the government of south Sudan no fau is directly accountable to its headquarters in room fau has their own internal rules and regulation including management of the funds okay so um what can we do we do monitor actually we we but you know we we had to work at that we had to work alongside fau and others to ensure that you know the least that the ministry of agriculture can do at this moment is to get involved not just in monitoring but also in development of these projects what people are you know ignoring is that we develop these projects you know in partnership with fau fau does not hand this project to us no we participate in its development now we are also working very hard to ensure that we actually participate in the monitoring of the the activities we're already doing that yes of course we do need to to to to to do more but we are not watching you know fau and the others implementing this uh you know and doing nothing about it we actually involved but we can do more and we will be doing okay uh micha very briefly two questions the seeds and their recruitment process yeah thank you so much first of all i'm happy to hear that and raise one of the people who received seeds and uh it's it's very unfortunate that he's among those that their seeds did not terminate this is an area we're working on when we offer seeds there is something next that has to come which is called the germination rate unfortunately currently our germination rate in south Sudan is is it's about 55 percent but when you look at the germination rate leading our women women are at are at at at almost 80 percent germination rate when one does that mean the germination is uh that means that you can receive seeds one kilo and then uh your seeds either you didn't plant them or you didn't plant them well or there was no water so the germination rate is zero okay yeah when when they the 10 kilos of seeds get fruits then the germination rate okay but unfortunately now the lowest germination rate is among those born after 2000 so these are some things that we do we have to look at that that group of people and see anything being done about it yeah we have to look at it very keenly why is the germination rate uh very high among among women especially those uh that are up to 19 eight the germination rate if you give them seeds you can be sure okay but we are working very hard to make sure that that germination rate you mean people who are born in 1980s once you give them feed see the seeds they grow perfect the germination rate can be up to 80 percent uh 2000 then the germination rate falls to below 40 percent so those are things we are looking at what could be the the problem the second area that is also a problem that you're working on the vaccination and treatment also there we see when we vaccinate when we treat you can divide people into different groups in terms of success okay so but these are two areas that are a repetition or risk for FAO all right but on the seeds uh it's something that we are really working on but what I can confirm to you all our seeds the ministry of agriculture tests first yeah for germination rate at the lab but sometimes they can be problem in transportation but now we have establishing each and every state we have established a seed testing board at the state level each state tests our seed and we are going to make sure that we also equip them to test seeds for other NGOs recruitment process our recruitment process one but before that there was this this issue of why are we not seeing with all this project by John who I have to confess that he he really knows this project very well after congratulating you know now we are really working on to ensure subsistence each South Sudanese like you uh son you need 110 kilograms of cereal paella and you're okay it's not a lot so first of all we want to make sure you have 110 that is almost 10 kilos per month and you're okay you're food secure for my own consumption you you cannot consume more than other than 10 kilograms paella I cannot show you yeah you cannot consume more than 10 kilos per month so if we manage to to obtain this 110 which is one bag is 90 kilos so it's not as complicated so fast that household is secure so that this deaths and all this we are out of it then we move to the market so let us make sure that first we flood our homes with food and then after that that comprehensive camp will kick in where we move into we move into commercialization so our interest for now with this program for inside the resilience and that's why I'm talking next year we are aiming that people can produce their own food for seven months because you want to graduate from the six months okay yes 100% just fin what needs to be done for us to beat food secure or to meet their 110 my mother was talking about yes what we need is to increase investment in agriculture we need at least to allocate up to 10 percent of our national budget to agriculture second we need to ensure that you know our farmers adopt modern agricultural techniques and practices that you know we also provide you know some financing micro financing to our farmers that we organize our farmers in terms of agricultural you know groups as well as into our cooperatives that we you know ensure that you know the farmers use you know good you know post-harvest techniques we improve feeder roads we improve marketing okay with all this we'll be able to produce you know sufficient food for ourselves and also surplus for market thank you so much yes michake in 30 seconds for me I think it's it's the young people those born after 2000 are now 24 years old if each of them can make sure they produce 110 kilos per year that is a bag and a quart we are out of food insecurity thank you thank you very much and with that you have come to the end of our discussion for today I had a michake mallow for an agriculture organization come to representative Honorable Gess Phil Lago national minister Wagner Katchan for the security and Honorable Professor Greg James Chairperson standing specialized committee on agriculture and food security in the DNA or in the parliament here in Cuba thank you so much my name is Arnie Martin stadium to the rest of the programs coming up