Presentation by Eva Yayi, IT Officer, Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO) Session: Strengthening Grassroots Engagement in ARD Policy Processes on 5 Nov 2013 ICT4Ag, Kigali, Rwanda

1. #OSWARRAP: Open Systems Strategies linking FOSS & Open
Knowledge to Strengthen
Agriculture in Warrap State, South Sudan
By
Eva Yayi
eva@kapitalmovie.net
Strengthening Grassroots Engagement in ARD Policy
Processes session04

2. Overview of agriculture situation in
warrap state
•
Ministry of agriculture is the key ministry in warrap state
•
It is an economical ministry in charge of boasting warrap’s
economy and the modernisation of nomadic pastoralism
•
94%
of
South
Sudan’s
population
practices
agro-
pastoralism (agriculture & livestock for prestige and an
income generating activity)
•
Fisheries also plays an important role in the food security
sector but not so pronounced like nomadic pastoralism

3. Key Challenges of Agriculture in
Warrap State
The biggest challenge is cattle rustling as a result of:
•
Water scarcity, causing fights among the different tribes
resulting to death and loss off cattle
•
Dowry. A lady is auctioned for marriage and usually given
to the highest bidder (the one with more cattle)
•
Tribal conflicts within and outside warrap state
•
Presence of automatic riffles among the people
The above conflicts keep on repeating themselves as people seek for revenge

4. CEPO ‘s Proposed Solutions
•
Creation of valley dams to supply water to the animals in
various cattle camps
•
Strengthening police services especially in the areas
affected by cattle rustling by equipping them with weapons
and mobility to easily track down cattle raiders
•
Strengthening the local government structures like;
judiciary at county level or the customary court should be
harsh on the raiders to send a message to others; and
local government officials should be obliged to handle
cattle raiding issues in collaboration with strong police

5. …proposed solutions cont
•
Cattle raiding leaders should be given assignments such
as reporting any attempts for cattle raiding.
•
Disarmament of civilians and providing adequate
protection to the civilians by the government instead of the
youths taking the lead
•
Initiation of livelihood activities like fishing, poultry to make
people busy and generate for themselves income instead
of thinking about cattle raiding

6. Overview of South Sudan
Technology
•
South Sudan relies on wireless mobile internet
connections, that are expensive, so congested, unreliable
and too slow.
•
There are no under ground fiber optics for fast wired
internet connections.
•
Relies on internet providers from neighboring East Africa
and Sudan.
•
Warrap state radio is used to communicate to the people
and it covers up to 7km2 of warrap state
•
They also use Miraya fm, a Juba based UN radio station
which covers the whole of south Sudan; and Voice of
America South Sudan

7. …Overview of south Sudan
technology cont
•
The state ministry of information is in the process of setting
up a state TV station but currently they are using the
national TV, SSTV (South Sudan Television)
•
Mobile penetration is good in warrap’s capital Kuajok
(Gemtel, MTN, Vivacell, Zain); but not good or not
available in other counties.
•
There is limited man power in the ICT sector where they
lack qualified personnel to work at state level
•
There is a state website (www.warrapstate.com)

8. What needs to be done to make
technology open, accessible and
available to farmers
•
Ministry of agriculture together with Kapital movie Industry
proposed Mobile Cinemas displayed in various cattle
camps across warrap state (in the process of developing
this idea)
•
Agriculture Business Bulletin where all the ten states can
send agriculture related data on disease surveillance and
market prices.
•
Introduction of OjoVoz mobile technology which is aimed
at lowering the barriers of complexity of access to
technology for non expert users; and this can be done in
areas with low telecommunications coverage and limited
infrastructure.

9. THANK YOU!!!