5 June 2014 - The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) was doing everything possible, including delivering seeds through airdrops, to assist highly vulnerable people in South Sudan, FAO’s country head of office said today.

“Portability and flexibility are our watchwords right now,” said Sue Lautze in a statement, which also noted that although airdrops were used only as a last resort due to their high cost, they also guarantee that farmers in the most inaccessible areas receive support, enabling them to grow their own food and making the operation cost-efficient in the long run.

As well as targeting conflict-affected communities with large-scale distributions by truck, FAO worked with UNMISS to fly 21 tonnes of crop seeds to Pibor, Jonglei State, the statement said.

The organization also undertook an emergency airdrop with the support of the WFOP logistics capacity, dropping packages from a plane to a partner on the ground who then distributed the seed to farmers.

Three tonnes of crop seeds were also successfully air-dropped in Mayendit County, Unity State, and will enable 250 households to produce over 200 tonnes of crops.

“FAO is grateful to … the donors who facilitated these initial airdrops,” said Ms. Lautze. “We will continue to integrate this logistic option as part of the rapid response partnership.”

The airdrops are an innovation that is part of FAO’s emergency response operations which have been scaled up in the country in order to reach conflict-affected people.

“Humanitarian access and insecurity remain the biggest threats to food security in the country – if we cannot reach those in most need there is a real risk of famine later in 2014 and into 2015,” said Ms. Lautze.

The statement announced that FAO, which is supporting 1.3 million people, has extended its emergency response for an additional three months to reach conflict-affected farmers, fishers and herders with vital emergency livelihood kits.

“Since the crisis began, more than 110,000 emergency livelihood kits have been distributed, including crop seeds, fishing kits, vegetable seeds and livestock health kits.” the statement said.

It noted however that more funding is urgently needed. FAO is appealing for $108 million and has received $42 million to date. Additional funding could bring the total number of people supported in 2014 to 2.7 million, the statement said.

FAO’s emergency response programme is also addressing the rapidly deteriorating food security situation, with more than 3.5 million people currently suffering from crisis or emergency levels.

“FAO’s work is not limited to humanitarian operations,” said Ms. Lautze. “We have a twin-track approach where we will continue with our development projects whilst responding to the most critical humanitarian needs.”

She added however, that the focus in the coming months will be on the most food insecure counties in Jonglei, Unity and Upper Nile states.