Agriculture
15 Feb 2011
South Sudan's agriculture sector consists mainly of subsistence farming. The Government wants to increase agricultural production to become one of the main economic pillars. One of the more immediate goals is to attain food security.
In order to achieve this goal, the knowledge base to farm needs to be completely rebuilt and modernized, as it has been destroyed by decades of war. South Sudan must make a major effort to train farmers on productive and commercial agriculture. This training can be offered by community-based agricultural workers and supervisors, who need to be trained for this purpose.
Few training institutes
There is still a big gap between the country's substantial needs in terms of quantity and the limited capacity of training institutes. There are only five training institutes plus the Yambio Institute. They belong to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) and the Ministry of Animal Resources and Fisheries (MARF).
They offer:
- short courses (1-3 months);
- certificate courses (9 months);
- training on demand;
- community outreach activities.
In addition to their limited student intake capacity (20-30 for certificate courses and 40-60 for short courses), they also lack operational funds as the government pays little more than staff salaries. It is difficult to obtain scholarships.
Unclear institutional embedding of existing training institutes
The training centres which offer short term and graduate courses to personnel in the agriculture, forestry, animal resources and fisheries sectors were originally built as government extension training centres. In 2004, they were reopened as private training centres, thanks to USAID funding. When USAID stopped funding the centres in 2006 they were handed over to MAF and MARF.
The centres have kept their semi-autonomous status and are governed by a Board of Trustees. De facto, however, they increasingly depend on government funding. Due to the unclear situation it is anticipated that the centres will soon become fully part of the government system. Hopefully the government will then be in a stronger position to guarantee sufficient funding.
No accreditation
The training centres issue certificates that are not accredited by any authority. This makes it difficult for the government to grade them according to the government salary structure. It also means that graduates struggle to further their studies. The courses cannot be accreditated by other education institutions in South Sudan and thus need to be revised. Finally, there is a lack of good laboratory and library facilities.
Juba University has a College of Natural Resources & Environment which offers graduate education in seven disciplines. But education is largely theoretical because the campus lacks proper laboratories and access to experimental fields. As the University falls under the responsibility of the State Ministry of Education in Khartoum formal collaboration with GoSS institutes is problematic.
Donor support
Several donors and NGOs operate in the agriculture sector, some of them with substantive programmes such as the EC and MDTF South Sudan (administered by the World Bank), USAID and various International NGOs. The emphasis is on providing equipment, buildings, vehicles and staff training. Training consists of short term training courses in South Sudan and abroad. Coordination among the major donors is still in an early stage.
