South Sudan food insecure despite increase in cereal production - Report

Cereal production in South Sudan in 2020 rose by seven percent over 2019 levels because of favourable rains, but cereals remained far below average production levels reached before the conflict erupted in South Sudan in 2013, a new UN report on food security established.

A high cereal deficit expected for 2021 due to the impact of prolonged conflict and floods is leaving millions of South Sudanese extremely food insecure, according to the Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission (CFSAM), report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP).

According to the joint report, “Cereal production in 2020 is estimated at 874,400 metric tons, seven percent higher than 818,500 metric tons in 2019.

The marginal growth will cover the needs of only a third of the population, leaving most people reliant on humanitarian food assistance and imports of essential grains, at prices beyond the reach of ordinary South Sudanese.”

Matthew Hollingworth, WFP Representative and Country Director in South Sudan, said: “The marginal gains in cereal production show that where there is peace and stability, the people of South Sudan are able to turn the page on hunger.”

“But in a country still battered by years of war and the ravages of climate change, modest improvements are far from enough to end food insecurity, which is the highest ever. Disrupted livelihoods, heavy losses in livestock and other assets, and high food prices are pushing the average family deeper into poverty and hunger,” he added.

The report said the alarmingly high deficit in 2021 cereal production, estimated at 465,600 tons, keeps food insecurity at an all-time high yet South Sudan needs 1.3 million metric tons of cereal a year to feed its 12.2 million people.

Of the country’s ten states, only Western Equatoria produced enough cereal for FAO and WFP to purchase locally to feed the hungry in the other nine states.

Jonglei, Unity, and Upper Nile have the highest cereal deficit levels in the country and therefore account for nearly 50 percent of all food-insecure people. The combined impacts of recurring conflict and huge floods in the three states severely hampered agriculture.

"This growth is encouraging, but lasting peace is the precondition to enable communities to benefit from South Sudan's fertile soils, produce their own food, and exit from humanitarian aid," said Meshack Malo, FAO Representative in South Sudan.

“Our priority is to unleash South Sudan's potential, increase crop production, and to allow communities to contribute to the expansion of the planted areas.”

Food security is a huge challenge to 7.2 million people, 60 percent of South Sudan’s population. Violence and conflict, competition among groups over resources such as farmland and water, as well as new protracted displacements due to violence and floods both destroyed assets and eroded communities’ resilience.