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CASESTUDY

SUCCESS STORY BY SFM SUPPORTED BENEFICARY ON POVERTY REDUCTION PROCESS IN JUBA

For the last twenty-one years, the civil war raged on with huge devastation on the installed infrastructures, human resources and also many resources taping were hindered that made poverty still vigor in the region. Despite of all difficult operational situations, Swedish Free Mission (SFM) had been supporting communities in Equatoria since 1980s to alleviate poverty, through working for improvement of health, food production, environmental improvement and capacity building on integrated basis with some tangible results on some individuals.

The situation before SFM Intervention in the area

Mr Federico Ladu who used to depend mainly upon subsistence farming has more to talk about. He used to have only 2.5 hectare being cultivated by use of hand tools and household labour every year. The main crops produced were sorghum, groundnut, and sesame to keep his family persist. The yield for sorghum, groundnut and sesame were 720-900 kgs, 45-90 kgs and 50-100 kgs, respectively, below household requirement per year. Other activities outside farming included: charcoal burning, and vegetable growing. He used to practice traditional methods of cultivation, to grow almost every crop of the season and never to specialize on some crops for income generation to support other household needs. There were no informative training workshops to enlighten him for any change in production and to see way forward in development. Charcoal production was the only lucrative but laborious business ever he could survive on. Starvation was very severe situation, family members frequently sick and education for children was difficult.

Situation after SFM intervention

In 1999 SFM intervened in the area by supporting the community with agricultural tools and seeds. Along side agricultural tools, free tractor service was offered to the community. The free tractor service did not survive well; most targeted group did not crop 30% of the ploughed land after evaluation. Then the community decided to enforce fee for tractor hire an equivalent to 19 US Dollars per hectare that increased production, consequently.

In the following successive years of 1999, SFM conducted several workshops on agricultural production, and some tips of development. Some SFM-Juba staff trained in Khartoum House of Learning study circles acquired development skills applied in the community training Development tips.

From that point, Mr. Federico gained momentum and pushed ahead to increase his farm size from 2.5 hectare to a range from 4.2-8.4 hectare from 2000 to 2005 by hiring tractor and paid labour. Now for crop production he is specializing mainly on sorghum, cassava and watermelon. The sorghum output ranged from 3.6-4.5Mt, which covers household requirement efficiently per year. Incase of income generation, cassava and watermelon have been produced that yielded an average amount of 2200, and 3500 US Dollars income per year, respectively. Other activities included animal live stocking, bee keeping and grinding mill care service.

He said ‘I benefited a lot from SFM support and training’. He has increased household income from his farm and invested in two grinding mills. Now he employed four workers to run his grinding mills. The grinding mills are saving much energy and time for the women to do other activities instead of grinding flour for about three hours after every two days.

To facilitate his movement from the farm to Juba he managed to acquire a brand new motorcycle.

The future

For his personal plans he is inspiring growth and development. To keep on growing firmly, he requires moral support and further practical trainings since he could not read and write. He is planning more to increase agricultural land to 21 hectare, livestock expansion, install better grinding mills and in one to two years time, to acquire a vehicle.

SUDAN

Folkmängd: 33,6 milj

Yta: 2 505 813 km2

Gruppen tot:

Kristna: 5-10 %

Huvudstad: Khartoum (ca 5,7 milj

Språk: arabiska

Statsskick: republik

Analfabetism: ca 40 %

Radiosändn.: ?

Högsta berg: Kinyeti (3 187 m ö h)

Längsta flod: Nilen

Folkgrupper:araber (40-50 %), dinka (ca 12 %), nuba, nuer, fur, nubier, beja (ca 2-9 % vardera)

Sudan, Juba