Livestock and Aquaculture Support from TİKA to South Sudan

Thanks to the support of Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA), a technical visit was paid to South Sudan within the scope of livestock and aquaculture. 

For the development of policies within the domain of Republic of South Sudan Ministry of Animal Resources and Fisheries, in cooperation with TİKA, two experts from the Republic of Turkey Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock paid a technical visit to the capital city Juba.

Gaining independence in 2011 after a long civil war, South Sudan consists of 32 states. In South Sudan, where 70-80% of the population of approximately 12 million people earn their living through livestock activities; ongoing wars and conflicts have created significant inadequacies related to basic needs such as infrastructure, energy and water.

Following the technical visit, which was paid with the objective of assessing the situation of South Sudan in terms of the organization of the Ministry, development of livestock and animal health projects, fisheries and aquaculture practices, development assistance and potential projects that may be provided through TİKA were identified, and potential application areas were discussed. Furthermore, potential avenues for cooperation were considered on topics such as development programs, preparation of the country’s strategic plan and application matrices for livestock and fisheries and the discussion of the laws and regulations.

As part of the field work of the experts, visits were paid to Nikodo Milk Collection Center, Rejaf Livestock Research Center, to a farm, belonging to a private enterprise, to a slaughterhouse and to a veterinary clinic. The authorities were informed that the productivity capacity of South Sudan is very low considering the population of livestock and infectious diseases are very common among animals.

On the final day of the visits, a workshop was organized with a wide spectrum of attendees and the current situation of the livestock and fisheries as well as the potential future projects were discussed. The workshop was attended by South Sudan Minister of Animal Resources and Fisheries James Duku, R.T. Ambassador to Juba Hasan Sevilir Aşan, TİKA Juba Coordinator Yahya Acu, Experts from the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock Dr. Kenan Baran Polat and Binnur Ceylan, representatives from all ministries, industry representatives, international donor organizations and FAO representatives.

An agreement was reached upon establishing a bilateral Agricultural Cooperation Agreement to serve as a legal framework for the relations between the related Agricultural Ministries of Turkey and South Sudan. It was emphasized that the legal framework will facilitate the relations and TİKA projects will commence as soon as possible. In particular, in order to enable South Sudan Ministry of Animal Resources and Fisheries to be functional, it was stated that the Turkish model will be used as an example, South Sudanese experts will be trained on these issues and in order to fight against common animal diseases, Turkey’s extensive experience and infrastructure will be shared with South Sudan.