By Yiep Joseph<\/p>\n
Vice President Dr. James Wani Igga, chair of the Economic Cluster, has urged members of parliament to advocate for a 10% budget allocation for the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n He made the call during the launch of the 3rd Edition of the Juba Economic Forum on Thursday, under the theme: “Promoting Commercial Agriculture as a Pathway to Economic Stability.”<\/p>\n VP Igga highlighted the persistent challenge of underfunding in the agricultural sector and stressed the importance of increased investment to boost production and ensure food security.<\/p>\n \u201cWe must ensure that at least 10%, and our MPs who are please take note, at least 10% of our annual public expenditure, this means the budget is allocated to our Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security,\u201d Wani said.<\/p>\n He expressed that the failure by the government to properly fund the agriculture would subject the citizens to starvation and malnutrition.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we do not do this and we sing it like a song, then we will continue to starve and to be malnourished. This needs determination; we can do that. 10% is not too big; that should be allocated to our agriculture sector,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He acknowledges the country’s import of products, including agricultural products that are supposed to be supplied by farmers within the country.<\/p>\n The VP urged the participants and members of parliament, in particular, to take the campaign for proper sector funding seriously so that it could be easily realized.<\/p>\n \u201cReasonable budgetary allocation, I mentioned 10% before, and so above all, this issue of 10% should be taken away, something that we need to go and implement,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Josephine Joseph Lagu, Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, urged donors and development partners to focus on supporting food production in the country.<\/p>\n \u201cWith the right policies, investments, and partnerships, including the use of cooperatives to transform agriculture, we can turn our agricultural sector into a thriving commercial industry,\u201d said Lagu.<\/p>\n She expressed that the ministry is committed to fighting food security; however, a lack of adequate funds continues to be a challenge.<\/p>\n In 2024, Josephine Lagu appealed for 10 per cent of the country\u2019s budget to be allocated to the agricultural sector.<\/p>\n She made the appeal while responding to questions from parliamentarians during deliberations on the speech President Salva Kiir gave during the opening of parliament.<\/p>\n President Salva Kiir had urged citizens to produce more food to combat hunger and directed the Ministry of Agriculture to revive agricultural schemes.<\/p>\n To implement the president\u2019s directive, the minister emphasized the need for adequate funding for her ministry. The minister highlighted that 10 percent of South Sudan\u2019s national budget should support the agriculture sector, including crop production, livestock, fisheries, environment and forestry, and irrigation and water resources.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need 10 per cent of the budget invested in this sector to bridge the food gap, address flood threats, and tackle climate change, all of which impact agricultural production,\u201d Lagu explained.<\/p>\n In 2003, during the African Union (AU) Summit in Maputo, Mozambique, heads of state and government pledged to invest 10 per cent of their annual national budgets in agriculture.<\/p>\n This initiative, known as the Maputo Declaration, aimed to achieve an agricultural yearly growth rate of 6 per cent through the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP).<\/p>\n The 10 per cent budget pledge for agricultural development has been reaffirmed in subsequent AU declarations, including the 2014 Malabo Declaration on accelerated agricultural growth and transformation for shared prosperity and improved livelihoods.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Yiep Joseph Vice President Dr. James Wani Igga, chair of the Economic Cluster, has urged members of parliament to advocate for a 10% budget allocation for the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security. He made the call during the launch of the 3rd Edition of the Juba Economic Forum[Read More…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":33198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Women-in-one-of-the-vegetable-gardens.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33197"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33200,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33197\/revisions\/33200"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u201cWe have responded to the president\u2019s statement, but we urge the government to fulfill the 10 percent budget allocation required from all African governments,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n