JUBA, May 9 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on Thursday inked a 150-million-U.S.-dollar deal to support the east African nation's modernization of agriculture.
Pierre Vauthier, FAO country representative, said the comprehensive country framework (CCF) that involves working with the ministries of agriculture, livestock and fisheries, environment and water and irrigation aims to provide inputs, credit and loans to farmers besides increasing production in order to export food and livestock products.
"What we want to do is to contribute to help the entire country including all men, women, youth of South Sudan to develop agriculture. The first priority is to increase production by developing the capacity of fish farmers in the country to have access to better inputs, credit and loans and capacity to link up with the market," said Vauthier in Juba.
He disclosed that they will work with government to improve access to water for livestock in order to reduce intermittent conflicts among pastoralist communities that continue to persist.
Vauthier said that the framework will help increase income generation of all the population through modernization of the livestock sector.
"We need South Sudan to be able to sell fatter livestock, in order to earn more money out of the livestock that we are breeding here. What we are going to do is to mobilize money in order to have very competitive fisheries sector in particular Bor, Terekeka, Juba and Malakal areas," he added.
Makuei Malual, undersecretary of South Sudan's Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries, said that some of the projects within the framework are already ongoing, like the cross border project around Torit, Maban and Aweil North.
"It (CCF) is supposed to be looking at production, marketing of livestock and disease control. If this is realized it will develop livestock sector and also (build) resilience of communities which are depending on livestock for their survival," said Malual.
Mathew Udo, undersecretary of South Sudan's Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, said the framework agreement involves supporting programs within the 25-year Comprehensive Agricultural Master Plan (CAMP), an ambitious blueprint set up by South Sudan government to develop and modernize agriculture and livestock sectors.
The country has vast arable land and 38 million livestock. Currently oil and mining dominate the economy in terms of revenues, accounting for 98 percent of the fiscal budget since the country's independence from Sudan in 2011.
