15 November 2012 - Northern Bahr El-Ghazal had potential to become the food basket for all of South Sudan, UNMISS State Coordinator Seth Kumi said in Aweil today.

Speaking at the state's second annual Agricultural Trade Fair, Mr. Kumi said he was impressed by what he had seen. "The potential is there and ... we will give all the necessary support so that (the state) is able to feed itself and the entire people of South Sudan."

Opened by State Governor Lt. Gen. Paul Malong Awan, the fair was organized by the South Sudan national Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Rural Development and Cooperatives under the theme "Food security is the other side of human security".
Farmers from the border state's five counties participated in the fair, which also featured an agricultural produce competition. The winners will participate in a three-day national agriculture trade fair in Juba at the end of November.

On 6 November, the World Food Programme (WFP), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and other partners released a report describing food security in South Sudan as highly precarious.

"The situation requires sustained attention to not only foster longer term improvements, but to mitigate the potential for wide spread critical levels of hunger," says the report, which is titled "How a new country can feed its people".

The report reveals that Northern Bahr El- Ghazal, Warrap and Lakes states have the highest incidence of severe food insecurity in the country.

It notes that the potential for agricultural production South Sudan is huge, although food security remains crippled by previous decades of conflict, as well as ongoing violence and insecurity.

"Half of the total 82 million hectares of agricultural land is suitable for agricultural production ... yet currently only 4.5% of the available agricultural land is under cultivation," the report says.

"If this new country is to take full advantage of its considerable agricultural resource base it needs to overcome many complex obstacles that are currently crippling it," it states.