Horticulture Value Chain Capacity Building in South Sudan

Context and Project Objective

Smallholder vegetable farmers in South Sudan face persistent challenges throughout the horticulture value chain, including limited access to quality seeds and other inputs, low knowledge of good agricultural practices (GAP), weak seedling nursery systems, and poor post-harvest handling. These constraints reduce yields, limit market participation, and weaken resilience to climate variability. With fragmented and insufficient agricultural extension support, farmers struggle to adopt improved practices that would increase productivity, enhance resilience, and reduce losses.

The Community Driven Rural Development (CDRD) project seeks to strengthen the horticulture value chain by improving agricultural extension capacity and promoting climate-smart and productivity-enhancing techniques. Working with SNV Netherlands Development Organization, East-West Seed Knowledge Transfer Foundation (EWS-KT) brings standardized training tools, practical demonstration approaches, and effective input-market linkage strategies to the project to address identified capacity gaps.

This aspect of the CDRD project will build the capacity of SNV staff, implementing partners, and community agriculture facilitators in Juba, Torit, and Yambio counties so they can effectively support farmers with reliable, practical, and climate-smart vegetable production knowledge. Through curriculum development, a structured training program, and standardized demonstration plots and seedling nurseries, EWS-KT will create a coherent, consistent, and scalable extension framework for the CDRD project and beyond.

Key Activities

• Develop and validate a context-appropriate horticulture training curriculum, with facilitator guides and visual training materials for farmers.
• Deliver practical technical training on GAP, pest and disease management, nursery management, climate-smart agriculture, and post-harvest handling to project partners and community facilitators.
• Support SNV and other local implementing partners in establishing 3 standardized demonstration plots and seedling nurseries (1 per county) as learning hubs.
• Enhance linkages with reputable agro-input dealers to improve farmer access to quality inputs and to strengthen dealer-provided advisory services. 
• Provide continuous support and field mentoring to SNV teams and partners.

Expected Outcomes 

• Enhanced technical competency of SNV and partner extension teams.
• 3 operational demo plots and seedling nurseries showcasing best practices.
• Improved farmer access to high-quality inputs and advisory services from agro-input dealers.
• Standardized, consistent extension delivery across all project counties.
• Increased farmer adoption of improved horticultural practices and climate-smart techniques.

EWS-KT Partners

Funding and implementing partner: SNV Netherlands Development Organization – CDRD Project

Project Period

19 November 2025 – 16 November 2026

Location

South Sudan: Juba County (Central Equatoria State), Torit County (Eastern Equatoria State), and Yambio County (Western Equatoria State)