Multiple shocks, such as community-based conflict, more or less permanent flooding, and macroeconomic setbacks, have affected vulnerable farming households across South Sudan since its independence from Sudan in 2011. No less than two severe droughts and four severe periods of flooding in the vast wetlands along the river Nile and its tributaries have led to mass displacement and the loss of lives and livelihoods. Lower food production, high rates of food insecurity, and low investment in farming are the results.
Å·ÃÀÈÕb´óƬ Group has invested $50.7 million in a Labor-Intensive Public Works (LIPW) Project¡ªpart of the in South Sudan¡ªdesigned to increase the resilience of beneficiaries with the equivalent of $40.50 a month in payments for their work on community projects.
The project has been implemented by the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) on behalf of the Government of the Republic of South Sudan in selected counties in South Sudan¡¯s Central and Eastern Equatoria, Jonglei, Upper Nile, and Northern Bahr-el-Ghazal states.
Sam Bakuli, 47, a father of four, is a project beneficiary in Agoro Maji Boma, Magwi County, Eastern Equatoria. He took part in repairing 2 km of road leading to the local school. The public work project included rehabilitating the school grounds, which double as a farmer¡¯s education and economic center.
Sam earned nearly $243 in South Sudanese Pounds a month working on the project, money he used, in part, to buy two male and two female goats. Withing three years, his livestock multiplied, providing his family a source of nutrition¡ªgoat meat and goat¡¯s milk¡ªand an extra source of income from the sale of the goats he bred.
¡°I took part in the rehabilitation of our local school road for six months, and the profit is what you can see now,¡± he said. ¡°I no longer suffer from cultivating my farm by myself. I sell goats ¡ and use the income to hire a tractor for ploughing my farm. I have increased my farm from 4 to 10 hectares and that has increased my yield.¡±
Labor-intensive public work is an approach used to give vulnerable households a chance to earn cash in the short-term and to grow more food in the medium-term. It offers exposure to skills, in this case in road construction, which they may be able to use in the future as well.
It is also a vital component of economic recovery, helping communities and households restore vital assets, including farmland and livestock devastated by desert locusts, infestations of which periodically plague the region. The aim of the community work component of the locust response project is to put depleted assets back in the hands of households and propel them to recovery.
The Rit-Nhom community in Bor County has reaped rewards of its own from labor-intensive public work, through which they repaired the road linking their homes to their farms. Easier access aids agricultural production and the transportation of food crops, such as sorghum, okra, and cowpeas to markets and to their houses. It helps boost food supplies and nutrition within the county and Jonglei state at large.
The rehabilitation of access roads has helped the Rit-Nhom agricultural production group for value addition triple farm production, as it can move essential inputs, such as tools, seeds, and other implements, by transport. Farmers have expanded their holdings from an average of 2 to 6 hectares each, increasing output. Yields have risen from 0.9 tons of sorghum per 2 hectares to 5.4 tons from six hectares.
In Torit County, Napoleon Luka, a member of the Hunger Free Crop Production for Value Addition Group, took part in rehabilitating a 5 km stretch of road from his village to the farming area of Fodofodo. The region suffers from flooding, often making it impossible for farmers to get to their fields from their homes. Napoleon and his team dug water channels to alleviate the flooding, which obstructed their access to agriculture during the rainy season. With the water drained, Napoleon and his colleagues can more easily get to their farms and expand the size of them.
¡°After walking on flooded paths for hours, we often reached our farms very exhausted and unable to cultivate much,¡± he said. ¡°But we now go to our farms with ease, and as a result, I have increased the area under cultivation from four hectares to six from which I harvested 16 bags of sorghum.¡± Napoleon has used the extra area he tilled to plant a variety of high-yielding sorghum seeds, putting into practice other skills he learned from the project.
He has saved seeds for the next planting season and plans to sell some seed to farmers in his village to help them improve their yields in turn. ¡°I have harvested 100 kilograms of seed from one hectare this season, [and] I aim to increase that amount by 100 percent next season,¡± he said, enthusiastically.
