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Islamic Relief has completed a livelihood support project in Warrap, South Sudan, which has helped thousands of farmers to improve their farming yield.

We provided 250 farmers with agricultural tools including axes, hoes, rakes and harvesting blades. We distributed around 15 tons of seeds to allow them to grow key ingredients in South Sudanese diets- sorghum, peanuts, black-eyed peas, sesame, tomato, cabbage and okra.

Islamic Relief also established five fruit nurseries where we planted 5,000 trees. We trained 130 farmers in crop production techniques and provided 200 fishermen with equipment including nets and hooks.

The project, which was funded by the Common Humanitarian Fund, aims to improve livelihood and food security by assisting farmers and fishermen from South Sudan, regardless of their beliefs.

Achol is a farmer from Warrap who lost her livelihood in the Second Sudanese Civil War. “People also used to cultivate sorghum, the main stable food. We lost all our livestock during the war before we fled to Khartoum and only to return in 2006 after the signing of the peace agreement”.

Islamic Relief provided Achol with enough seeds to plant around four acres of plants to feed her family. She explained, ““With tools and seeds which I received from Islamic, I am able to plant three feddans (roughly three acres) of sorghum and one feddan of peanuts which is a much bigger area than what I used to cultivate in the past. I am very optimistic that if it continues to rain normally, there will be no hunger next year as many people have planted seeds this year.”

Sixty-four percent of Warrap’s residents live below the poverty line and 87% depend on agricultural or cattle farming as their primary source of income. Islamic Relief aims to offer people a lasting way out of poverty, by improving the skills and sustainability of local farming methods.