Youth Urge Government To Improve Infrastructure, Security
South Sudanese youth have called the government and private sector to improve infrastructural development and security to enhance agricultural production as one way of improving food insecurity. 22 March 2013 The Youth during a workshop in Aeron Hotel, Juba. [Waakhe Simon Wudu/Gurtong] By Waakhe Simon Wudu JUBA–22 March 2013 [Gurtong]- The youth also called for promotion of good governance through increasing accountability and transparency of the democratic systems to avoid wastage and misuse of existing resources. The 20 youth mobilized by Crisis Management Initiative (CMI) who are in Juba for a four day workshop aimed at offering a long term-dialogue platform for youth to discuss the conflict and challenges faced by the new Republic of South Sudan presented their call before the National Minister of Agricultural and partners. “The most pressing issues faced by our nation are interrelated and this applies to the challenge of food insecurity. We therefore call the government to formulate a comprehensive policy framework that addresses different challenges,” said Bazia Justine, one of the youth representatives from Western Equatoria State. He also presented their position on how the agricultural sector should be improved in the country. The youth reiterated the need to financially support farmers to purchase tools, machines, supplies, other equipment and technical support. The private sector especially the banks have also been urged to provide more flexible and accessible micro-credits to farmers, and encourage the government to act as guarantor when needed. The youth appealed to farmers to organize themselves into cooperative groups to benefit from such loan schemes. They also called for a productive farming system to reduce food imports from outside. This according to the youth can be achieved through technical support and training provided to farmers capacity building programs aimed at increasing farmers’ knowledge in seeds, food processing methods, irrigation systems, intercropping natural disaster management. The Minister Hon. Betty Achan in turn underscored the importance of the youth’s call, saying the Ministry is already at advanced stage of coming out with a comprehensive agricultural policy including a number of the issues outlined for the youth. She urged the youth to actively participate in agriculture more to realize better and increased production. Posted in: Home -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "South Sudan Info - The Kob" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
