Just a few moments from Torit

A bouquet of groundnuts

     This past week we flew down to Torit, considered the breadbasket of South Sudan, to photograph some World Food Programme/PLAN International projects, that are supported by USAID.

Road builders

      First, I must say that we met some of the most dedicated, hard-working and deeply caring development professionals I have ever met. That's saying a lot considering the heady company of the many great development professionals I've had the honor to work alongside.

     Matuk, Nelson and the rest of the crews from WFP and Plan worked very hard to make our visit productive and, I hope, effective.

     We photographed programs that are trying to energize agricultural endeavors for better crops in an attempt to eliminate food distribution needs. I always say that I learn something new or see a new approach to development every time I go out and this was no different.

     Roads for food?
     Yup.
     Not only are they working with communities in the bush to connect them to main roads to provide more access to markets for their produce, but when there is food-aid need in other parts of the country, they are purchasing that grain, usually sorghum and maize, and delivering it to places where it's needed rather than relying completely on imported aid. My friends at Local First Arizona would love this as it is the ultimate buy-local initiative. 

Nelson examining the groundnut crops with a farmer, noting incomplete growth.

Building a road by hand.

          The bad news is that Mother Nature has not been kind. These folks have been through much in terms of civil war with the north and then internal civil war since independence.

     And now after planting with the first rains of the season several months ago, much of their sorghum has grown only 12 inches tall rather than six feet. With so little rain in the last couple months a high percentage of their groundnut crop (peanuts) failed to germinate,  the yield will probably be half or less of what they planted.

     Of course the fear now is that the breadbasket of South Sudan that supplies much of the country may well be receiving food aid themselves in a few months as a result of this rainy-season drought.

     And yet the people sort of shrug their shoulders and say we will get through, because they have always, somehow gotten through.

    Next in the Series, Africa 2015:  Juba: Water on Wheels

Building a road by hand, connecting their village to the main road, so that they can get their crops to market.

Sorghum should be six feet tall now.

Cabbage is growing a bit better than the Sorghum.

Bagging up local grain to distribute as food assistance to needy areas of South Sudan.