The watershed approaches for climate resilience in Agro-pastoral landscapes (WACRESS) project is a critical intervention designed to address the escalating climate vulnerabilities faced by communities in Northern Bahr el Ghazal, South Sudan, especially in Aweil East and Aweilcenter.
This ground breaking project aims to build a long-term climate resilience among agro pastoral communities in South Sudan, especially targeting the Aweil East and Aweil Centre counties of Northern Bahr El Ghazal. UNIDO has partnered with VOSDO to provide services of value chain development and technology uptake with in the project.
In this project, VOSDO will be working with Farmers in Northern Bahr el ghazal to improve the quality of crops and the risks associated with failure through the entire process. As the world is facing the risk of climate change, the majority of those affected are farmers and pastoralist who find it very difficult to cultivate and graze their cattle due to challenges brought by climate change. VOSDO will be supporting the famers in Aweil East and Aweil Center to ensure that they grow improved seeds and acquire technologically supported techniques in farming and harvesting of these crops. The failure in agriculture is most of the times associated with poor techniques in farming or choosing those techniques that do not consider the change in climate.
Value chain development for Farmers.
The farmers in Aweil East and Aweil Center will be supported and guided by VOSDO to choose varieties of crops and techniques which will be resistant to weather conditions and increase chances of a successful harvest. To ensure this, farmers will be given onsite training on techniques that are resistant to weather condition in Northern Bahr El Ghazal region. These techniques and guidance will be provided by expert agriculturalists. South Sudan in general, especially the region of Aweil East, rain fall has been the greatest challenge facing farmers who only rely on the rainy season to grow crops. However, the farmers will be guided by agriculturalists on techniques to harvest rain water and also the use of micro-irrigation and simple techniques of watering crops in the absence of water.
Ensuring success in agriculture for the farming communities in Aweil East and Aweil Centre is the task given to VOSDO through Value Chain development and adopting technology in farming. We will be providing training programs and guidance to the famers on how to access information about diseases that affect certain crops and the likelihood of success for a crop that a famer choses to cultivate. Food security is a priority for the region and these farmers are stake holders in the provision of food to the entire nation. It is with this consideration that famers are being trained on the use of technology and smart agricultural techniques to ensure that they contribute to the general provision of food to the state and the country as a whole.
Value chain development for pastoralists.
Pastoralists in our communities have faced many challenges from weather conditions, food, water and movement of one region to another in pursuit of good conditions for their animals. Aweil East and Aweil Center has communities who practice both Farming and cattle keeping as a way to earn a living. The reason why most pastoralists move from one region to another is because of the conditions facing their cattle, most of their livestock die from diseases, lack of water and food. In this project, farmers will be given knowledge about access to information on diseases that affect their cattle and how they can treat them prior to the disease outbreak.
Animal management has been a challenge to agro-pastoralist communities in South Sudan and it has also been the leading cause of conflict and disagreement. Most communities and pastoralists have traditionally labeled their cattle and it has been challenging to identify who owns the cattle especially while solving disputes. Through this program, pastoralist will be trained on the use of digital marks for their cattle to avoid conflicts.
Pastoralists have moved from one place to another in search for food, water, avoiding diseases and also to auction their cattle. This program will provide farmers through stake holders engagement on the best supply practices for cattlekeepers. Cattle keepers have moved from one region to another on foot to sell their cattle which has exposed them to security risks. Stake holders will be involved in supporting pastoralists and cattle keepers to sell their animals without risk of theft or harm while transporting their animals.
As a way to avoid migration and movement in search of food, pastoralists will be provided with training on how they can cultivate a variety of feeds for their animals to improve their health and prevent them from movements across the region looking for water and food. These movements have also increased the risk of their animals picking up diseases when they mix with animals from regions that have faced a disease outbreak.
Pastoralists will be provided skills on how to manage sales and invest in their animals by purchasing medications and foods that maintain the health of their herd. Most pastoralists use traditional feeds as a way to prevent diseases because they believe that modern medicine is harmful to the animals and prevent them from producing quality milk. In this program VOSDO will provide sensitization activities and manage misinformation and beliefs that have raised concern among the pastoralists on the use of technology in Cattle keeping.
