By Charles K Mark
The minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Josephine Lagu has blamed insecurity across South Sudan as the major factor to poor agricultural production.
Mrs. Lagu made the statement after lawmakers, during parliamentary sitting on Tuesday, raised concerns over a looming hunger across the country.
In response to the concerns, the minister entirely agrees with President Salva Kiir’s Call during opening of the Assembly, to embark on agriculture, but she noted that there is need for peace.
“We need to achieve peace, especially in rural areas, and on top of that, there is a need to invest in agriculture,” the minister said.
South Sudan sits on over 30 million acres of arable and very fertile land, which according to the minister, is yet to be properly utilized.
However, at present, she revealed that only four percent of South Sudan’s land has been used for agriculture, and the rest remains untapped.
Mrs. Lagu also decried the lack of money, urging that the ministry ought to be allocated 10 percent of the national budget to operationalize its agricultural projects.
“We need an increase in financing agriculture. We need to improve agricultural technologies and machinery. So, we need that 10 percent that has been urged from all the African governments to go to agriculture so that we deal with all the threats to agriculture, including climate change,” the minister urged.
She suggests President Salva Kiir Mayardit sits in, on Food Security and Nutrition Council, in order to push for action.