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Building Food Security Through Markets: Inside NCA's AgriHub Programme in South Sudan
In a country where food insecurity remains a daily reality for millions, improving agricultural production is only part of the solution. Farmers also need reliable markets, access to finance, quality inputs and stronger connections to buyers. This is the thinking behind AgriHub, NCA's flagship agriculture and market development programme in South Sudan.
Supported by the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Juba and implemented by NCA together with CARE, CRS, Johanniter and I-WIN, the Agri-Hub programme is helping smallholder farmers across Lakes, Jonglei and Western Bahr el Ghazal turn agriculture into a viable business. By linking farmers to markets, finance, services and buyers, and by strengthening key value chains, the programme is creating new opportunities for growth, jobs and investment that can continue well beyond the life of the project.
An Agri-Hub is more than a physical centre. It connects farmers with the inputs, finance, aggregation services, market information, and buyers needed to turn agricultural production into a viable business.
A key feature of the AgriHub model is its focus. Rather than trying to support every crop and livelihood opportunity, the programme concentrates on just three strategic value chains: sorghum, groundnuts and fish. This allows partners to invest more deeply in the entire value chain, from production and technology transfer to aggregation, access to finance and market linkages.
The approach is already gaining traction. In just a few months, more than 6,000 farmers have joined producer groups, cooperatives and savings groups, with over 130 cooperatives formally registered. Through input voucher fairs, 2,120 farmers, more than half of them women, purchased over 30 metric tonnes of seed from recognised suppliers. And despite a delayed rainy season, 2,750 farmers cultivated more than 4,500 feddans of sorghum and groundnuts.
AgriHub is not only about producing more. It is about helping farmers become market actors. Farmers have already been connected to seed suppliers , savings and lending groups have been established, and partnerships with private-sector actors and financial institutions are being developed to unlock future investment in the three value chains.
The fish value chain already demonstrates the potential of the AgriHub approach. In Bor, fishing groups harvested more than 259 tonnes of fish for markets in South Sudan and neighbouring countries, while farmers across Lakes and Jonglei have successfully established sorghum and groundnut crops despite delayed rains. With harvest season approaching, the programme is beginning to see how stronger production and market linkages can contribute to improved food security and incomes.
Women and young people are at the centre of the programme. Through producer groups, savings schemes, training and enterprise development, AgriHub is creating new opportunities for people who are often excluded from economic decision-making and access to finance. The next test will be turning these foundations into sustained commercial relationships. The programme is working to strengthen aggregation, meet buyer quality requirements, develop suitable financial products and secure more structured agreements between cooperatives and private-sector actors.
In South Sudan, building resilient food systems requires more than growing crops. It requires stronger markets. AgriHub is helping lay those foundations, one value chain at a time.
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