Where We Work : Southern Sudan : Livelihood Development

How to improve harvests of poor farmers

We are targeting poor Southern Sudanese women farmers to help them improve crop harvests and livestock yields.

The programme is designed to increase agricultural output, decrease livestock mortality, raise farm income, and increase rural employment.

We aim to train hundreds of volunteer agriculture and livestock extension workers with farming experience selected from our microfinance groups. We introduce, and demonstrate, modern farming practices.

We provide them with:

• Intensive training for two weeks
• Microfinance loans to increase yields on their own farms
• Supplies to assist other farmers such as high quality seeds and vaccines

In Southern Sudan, 70% of the population is engaged in agricultural activities for their livelihood. The farming communities are slowly recovering from decades of destruction from the civil wars. They face a number of problems including:

• Low crop yields
• Lack of high quality seeds
• Under-utilisation of low cost irrigation methods

Through an network of extension agents, we are able to reach out to thousands of small scale farmers. Specialist branch officers and community organisers are appointed to train the extension workers and supervise their activities.