The $612,000 programme, which will be implemented with the support of France and South Sudan’s ministry of agriculture, will target several states for one year, training farmers in the production, storage and marketing of quality seeds and cuttings of staple crops such as maize, cassava, cowpeas and sorghum.

“The importance of seeds to the food security and livelihoods of South Sudan’s farmers and rural communities is very high,” said the head of the Food and Agriculture (FAO) office in Juba, Sue Lautze. “Despite widespread food insecurity, the country is committed to ensuring food security for all, as soon as possible. Seeds are a critical component to realizing this important ambition.”

According to FAO, decades of conflict and displacement have taken their toll on farmers’ access to quality seeds and other planting materials, and eroded their knowledge of seed production techniques, which undermine crop productivity.

Today, more than 90 per cent of South Sudanese farmers still depend on the informal seed system, which is based primarily on saved seeds, social networks, and local markets. Typically, farmers use saved seeds from one season to the next, which lessens the genetic purity of the seed.

The programme will increase the availability and quality of seeds to South Sudan’s most vulnerable farmers in the states of Central Equatoria, Western Equatoria, Lakes, Western Bahr el Ghazal and Northern Bahr el Ghazal. It will also provide assistance to 400 seed producers.

“Through the project, FAO aims to not only reduce the number of households affected by food insecurity through improving the availability and access of locally produced quality seed on the market, but also aims to improve the incomes and capacity of seed producers,” said the Project Officer with FAO South Sudan, Joseph Okidi.

The project will include seed fairs, capacity development for seed enterprises, and training for farmers. It will also increase the amount of land dedicated to quality-seed multiplication, which is currently very limited.

In 2011, FAO and France implemented a similar programme in South Sudan, which led to the production of more than 350 tons of quality seeds and planting materials, and injected some $300,000 into the local economy. With the new programme, the agency is hoping to build on the previous success.

In a media statement, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced that its Swaziland Agricultural Development Project, or SADP, had already begun to have an impact on the lives of the country’s smallholder farmers through a number of training initiatives and agricultural development projects designed to increase productivity and competitiveness on the global food markets.

“You cannot tackle rural poverty if you don’t put the smallholder farmers first,” said the SADP’s Chief Technical Advisor, Nehru Essomba, in an FAO news release.

Launched in 2009, in tandem with the Government of Swaziland and the European Union, which has provided 14 million euros in funding to the project, the SADP has also focussed on raising the nutrition levels among the landlocked nation’s rural population as well as stimulating their economic output.

A total of 340 vegetable gardens have also been established for vulnerable families to grow vegetables and herbs for household consumption, with over 2,000 people directly benefiting. Moreover, the programme has helped some 2,500 young people set up their businesses in poultry farming, pig production, or vegetable and field crop production.

Swaziland has long been dealing with various social and economic difficulties. Consecutive years of drought, a devastating AIDS pandemic, decades of economic slowdown, and the precipitous rise in global food prices and agricultural inputs have made it increasingly hard for Swaziland’s rural population, which is highly dependent on subsistence farming, to make a living.

According to the FAO’s most recent statistics on the issue, almost 20 per cent of the country’s population of one million is undernourished.

“Connecting farmers to the market is a major challenge,” Essomba said, noting that the proximity of South Africa, with its large scale agricultural producers, also posed a problem for Swaziland’s farmers. In response to this added challenge, the SADP is setting up a one million euro Marketing Investing Fund to promote niche crops that offer small farmers a comparative advantage in the market.

In addition, the initiative is also working to spread good agricultural practices crucial for farming productivity, but also with an interest in preserving the environment and lessening the pressure on Swaziland’s limited resources. According to the FAO news release, more than 2,000 farmers have already been educated in a wide range of practices including conservation agriculture and agro-forestry.