East-West Seed Knowledge Transfer Foundation (EWS-KT), a non-profit corporate foundation with unique ties to East-West Seed Group has signed a memorandum of understanding with South Sudan’s Dr. John Garang Memorial University of Science and Technology, located in Bor, Jonglei state aimed at raising awareness of the economic and nutritional potential of vegetables.
The collaboration which is also geared towards strengthening EWS-KT’s work in the youngest African nation, which includes a similar 2-year partnership with the University of Juba, will be seeking to address skills and knowledge gaps in technical agricultural practices.
Spearheading the collaboration with Dr. John Garang University will be Peter Ajak, a teaching assistant at the university who participated in EWS-KT’s Nuffic-sponsored Tailor-Made Training project, which trained agriculture sector professionals from Ethiopia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Somaliland in best agricultural practices.
With support from Alex Odongo, a Technical Field Officer from the EWS-KT Uganda team who has been instrumental in setting up and managing a learning farm on the University of Juba campus, Peter will establish a learning farm at Dr. John Garang University and provide ongoing technical support for its operation.
The learning farm will showcase improved vegetable farming methods and offer field-based training in all aspects of sustainable and profitable vegetable production to diverse stakeholders. Peter will also support farming communities in and around Bor.
With this collaboration, we aim to train university students and faculty, farmers, government extension workers, agricultural input dealers, and NGO trainers involved in sharing vegetable production knowledge with smallholder farmers in South Sudan.
