Asunta Andrua John is a 46 years old famer with a household size of 7 out of these there are 2girls and 5boys who provides family labor to support the family in household activities and farming. She is a resident of Jelei village in Jelei Boma. Her residential status Returnees. Asunta Andrua John is a very active project beneficiary who opened one fedden of land planted with Cowpeas and Two fedden of land planted with Sorghum Seso3 which was distributed to the farmers by Global Aim South Sudan with support from FAO.
She said, the day was great and moving on very well and spending most of the day in the farm to grow Cowpeas and Sorghum seeds distributed. The crop performance of Cowpeas is very good and giving me hope and the family, and after harvest we shall have food and seeds saved for next planting season in 2025.
The resilient Agriculture Livelihood Project-Additional Financing project supported by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and implemented by Global Aim South Sudan with the objective To save lives, protect the livelihoods of households facing acute food insecurity, enhance their food production, and strengthen the most vulnerable communities’ resilience and adaptive capacity for climate change.
This project will continue and scale up the activities financed by the Crisis Response Window (CRW) – Early Response Financing (ERF) funds under the first RALP project. The scaled-up activities will increase the number of beneficiary households, strengthen the capacity of the state actors to respond to the challenges and opportunities brought by the flooding and the influx of refugees and returnees; and (ii) critical investments to restore livelihoods following the flooding and the impacts of influx of returnees and refugees in the counties targeted by the parent project.
The situation before the support was worse due to the economic crises; she faces acute shortage of not only basic household needs but also agriculture livelihood inputs like hoes and seeds to use for opening land and planting because there is No money.
The current challenge is economic situation of the country and insecurity in some parts were farmers cannot move to far distance to farm but still due to the support given through distribution of Agricultural Inputs I was able to open land and planted with Cowpeas and Sorghum Seso3 and it germinated well.
I benefited through the distribution of Agricultural Inputs like Hoes, Maloda, sickles, Fishing kits and Crop Seeds to meet immediate needs of my family. Global Aim South Sudan provided training to us on good agricultural practices and Integrated Pest Management. I have learned important things in farming and I will also teach others who did not turn up during the training.
The project has reduced our household food insecurity because we did not have money for procuring the seeds and tools but now we are provided, and at the end of the season we shall be able to meet our children’s needs (food, education, health expenses etc.). Through the meetings and trainings, I have changed my mind and I will be able to produce more food.
I have learnt that it is good to farm to reduce food insecurity in the community and particularly at house hold level. I have learnt to control the pest and diseases in the farms through awareness rising in the communities.
‘’My life and that of my family have changed in a positive way.’’ I now feel part of the community. Said Rose.
I think I have become an exemplary for other project beneficiaries, as I show them how things can work if you invest in your land,’’ she said.
My hopes in the future are to produce more food and be able to increase my business and job opportunity that is always a challenge in our community. In the 5-10 years will be able to sell food and seeds to the farmers and also increase farm scale.
