Gov’t to embark on agricultural production to end poverty – Igga

JUBA – South Sudan Vice President for Economic Cluster, Dr. James Wani Igga on Wednesday disclosed the government plans to embark on agriculture to help people escape poverty.

“The role of agriculture is to reduce poverty and in fact, this should be the function, responsibility, and duty of each and every department whether in government or private, the goal should be to reduce the poverty,” Wani said during the closure of the three-day consultative national conference on agriculture and food security held in Juba on Wednesday.

The conference aimed at workable initiatives to increase agriculture productivity for food sufficiency and improve welfare for rural people.

Igga encouraged the farmers to grow sufficient crops to feed their families, with a surplus to sell in order to meet the food security needs as well as bringing in income to move them out of poverty.

“Boosting South Sudan economy as well as sustaining human livelihood through an increase domestic productivity is fundamental,” he said.

“The Improvement in the diet of poor people depends on growth, not only in the supply of food and nutrition but also in stepping up productivity. Poverty is first and foremost to combat,” he added.

The top government official urged the National Ministry of Agriculture to incorporate the sustainable development goal to improve the agriculture sector in the country.

“There is an urgent need for technology for product diversification. We must again underscore and underline the need to diversified crops and methods to generate the inflow of foreign exchange which is so much desire in South Sudan,” he stressed.

“More equitable distribution of land and access to it will could and enable more people to benefit from agriculture. Trade varies from agriculture inputs from poor countries could be lower which would increase the market for developing countries,” he added.