By Adia Jildo
The chairperson of standing specialized committee for information, communication, technology and postal service at the national assembly John Agany Deng said South Sudanese are too dependent on food aid than farming.
He was speaking during the launch of South Sudan Parliamentary Alliance for food security and nutrition on Friday.
“Our people are so dependent that even cultivating your simple okra is impossible. Nobody is doing it” Agany said.
He related to his life over the dependence of his locally cultivated food for sustainability over the years.
“Let us be responsible for our own lives in South Sudan”.
The lawmaker said there is need for a working political will that will be led by the government of South Sudan.
“Our land is too precise for us to cultivate and get enough food” Agany said.
“Other people believe that they cannot cultivate because the UN is giving food relief for the community,” he noted.
The Information chairperson however underlined that there are factors such as insecurity, and natural disasters that affect the people from cultivating, but urged the people to focus on agriculture as peace is returning.
“It should have been good for our people to cultivate, not for them to depend on the food given to them” he stressed.
Agany said partners are only meant to supplement the work of the government in their various duties.
“FAO is putting a lot of money in the ministry but sometime because of the lack of the political will of the government, they simply return the money that they brought for agriculture. They don’t give it to us because they say we are corrupt. And indeed, we are,” he said.
“If we are not corrupt, why don’t we support agriculture by ourselves”.
“We must also get rid of the corrupt elements in the government including the agriculture ministry. There are corrupt elements there” he urged.
The MP urged the alliance on agriculture, food security and nutrition to follow-up with the Ministry of Agriculture to check what the ministry is doing.
He emphasized that the most important is the political will for the alliance to survive by the government taking lead in the act.
“I have seen former ministers in the government have working policies but this government that is now at work never brought any policies in the national legislative assembly,” he challenged the current executive.
Agany said funding will be impossible for ministries if no working policies are implemented.
“Agriculture ministry with other ministries must have working policies. We cannot give you any money without the working policies” he said.