Agriculture: While EAC partners brace for rains, South Sudan fears for worst

The East African Community (EAC) Secretariat has advised the partner states to take advantage of the expected region’s normal rains over the next few months for agricultural production.

 But for South Sudan, additional heavy rainfall would be an extension of the disaster.

On the contrary, the country is likely to reap sorrows as it deals with stagnant floods caused by two years of rain.

A recent forecast reveals that central and northern Tanzania, eastern Uganda, northern Burundi, eastern Rwanda, southern and western Kenya, as well as eastern South Sudan are expected to receive essential rainfall beneficial for farming and grazing animals.

The Climate Prediction and Applications Centre (ICPAC) of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development predicted normal rains in East Africa from March to May 2022.

“This is good news for the region, though the situation might differ from country to country. Expert guidance is important so that farmers are not over-optimistic in case the rains end earlier than usual, but also that the opportunity is not lost, “stated Christophe Bazivamo (the EAC Deputy Secretary-General, Productive and Social Sectors) in the communique dated March 25.

However, most South Sudanese are worried that the flashes might not favour some parts of the country, as they could worsen the already severely flood-hit states.

Local perspective

Junior Dau Dhieu, a concerned South Sudanese who is a trauma specialist, said he was not seeing chances of the country’s benefit given the volatile political situation.

“With the deteriorating political atmosphere in South Sudan, I don’t think we are in a position to make use of the opportunity,” he said

“For instance, insecurity has made farming difficult in Magwi County, Eastern Equatoria State, with the recent clashes between the farmers and pastoralists.

“And Eastern Equatoria is projected to have rain this year, it will be difficult for farmers to capitalise on the opportunity compared to their counterparts in the region,” he explained.

According to Dau, farming thrives in a peaceful environment and even if there are abundant showers of rainfall predicted, it may not work in the case of South Sudan.

The medic said it was high time for the government to improve the security of farmers to boost agriculture.

“There is a need for farmers to return to the farming spots and do a lot of preparations before farming,” he stated.

 Official take

The national Minister of Livestock and Fisheries, Adigo Anyoti Nyikwach, said if the rain was minimal, it would impact the lives of the people more positively compared to when it is heavy.

“We have a lot of floods which affected livestock generally and the crops as they were affected by rainwater. As we are taking it now, some areas are filled with water, “he said.

“Crops will not yield and even livestock will not have pastures because the (areas) will be taken over by water,” he told The City Review in an exclusive interview yesterday.

Before the circumstances where droughts might be experienced, the Secretariat also encourages partner states to seriously invest more in irrigation and urges farmers to adopt technologies for water harvesting and storage to increase crop production across the member states.  

It has been suggested that irrigation systems be built to supply water to areas that frequently receive low rainfall.

Adigo, who was also a former Minister of Agriculture, said the country only needs minimal rains for it to be able to rehabilitate from the previous flood’s dramas.

Ways forward

He said his ministry was working hard to ensure the adoption of zero-grazing for livestock so that it invests in the vast agricultural land that is often used for grazing instead of farming.

“We are planning to look into it that animals are supposed to go for zero-grazing where you can make them stay in one particular place since they are a lot of problems now in the country caused by the pastoralists themselves,” he said.

Recently, there have been problems involving pastoralists and farmers that resulted in the loss of lives.

He said, “there is a real need to see exactly what can be done to solve such problems.”

However, some locals argue that such cattle-related problems are unable to be solved at the moment, as some grasslands have been severely hit by floods.

According to the statistics from the agencies, about five out of the 10 states have been greatly affected by flooding.

Adigo said most of the efforts to resolve the challenges have been dictated by the question of resources.

“Everything needs money, you need funding because the plan can be there. But the obstacle will be funding because we have plans of doing some certain things like to develop zero-grazing zone where each county can survey an area for cattle and then they will be producing gulfs which are eatable by cattle,” he said.   

He said that the zero-grazing zone was going to prevent the random grazing that often leads to conflict between cattle keepers and farmers.

While most of the states in the Equatoria region are known for farming, it is indisputable that some of the recent efforts to farm have been limited by either insecurity or floods.

In South Sudan, agriculture remains at a subsistence level, with average field sizes of two feddans per household, crop yields being very low.

It is also believed that one ton per feddan is due to the use of poor-quality seeds, tools, and agronomic practices. The same applies to the livestock and fisheries sectors.

According to the African Journal of Agricultural Research dubbed “Farmers’ perceptions, practices and proposals for improving agricultural productivity in South Sudan” published on September 16, 20218, agriculture accounts for 36 per cent of the non-oil GDP with 80 per cent of the population living in rural areas largely dependent on subsistence farming.  

It is also perceived that despite abundant water supplies, only five per cent of the total 30 million hectares of arable land is cultivated across the country.

However, the Senior Presidential Advisor Kuol Manyang Juuk recently claimed that the young people were lazy to take up agricultural opportunities.

This according to him is also contributing to the poor agricultural performance in the country.