Food Production

“Be sure to set aside a tenth of all your fields produce each year. Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine, and oil, the first born of your herds and flocks in the presence of the Lord your God at the place He will choose as a dwelling for His Name so that you will learn to revere the Lord your God always.”

Deuteronomy 14: 22-23

 

A worthy saying: “Give a man a fish, you will feed him for a day, but show him how to fish, you shall feed him for a life time”

How can donors help Operation Nehemiah help feed the Sudanese people in the midst of war and persecution?

In response to this question, our senior field director on the ground, Joseph Levi relates the following facts and ideas:

The Sudan has the potential to be the bread basket of Africa. The Sudan and other needy nations in Africa have said, “Give us the tools for farming; we can feed ourselves.” Ready-made food brought from abroad can only serve for a short term. Dependence on it, only makes us lazy.

Despite the fertility of the land and the human resources available in the South Sudan, the community generally lacks the technical know how and the means to raise substantial amounts of food. Our priority is to reverse that trend to the point of helping communities in the South Sudan produce a surplus of food to return to the market. Coming from a family with an extensive agricultural background, it is my desire to encourage the returning exiles by helping them once again make good use of their land and rekindle the industrious spirit of my people. They must now move away from relief dependence syndrome which they have acquired in exile while living in the refugee camps in Uganda where they were depending entirely on provisions from United Nations High Commissioner for refugees.

As a result of this feedback coming directly from the nationals on the ground, we decided to take this need to God in Prayer. We prayed that He would provide ONMI with good leaders on both sides of the continents to pioneer the agricultural development. God has answered our prayers and here are the results:

• On the New Sudan side of the project, the Lord has raised Mr. Joseph and Michael Levi to mobilize the workers and implement the practical vision of ONMI’s agricultural projects in Beth Israel (Corom) Pageri district, Eastern Equatoria State, Magwi County, New Sudan.
• God has provided us with 7 square miles of fertile land in New Sudan to carry out this vision and the desire he places in our hearts to make good use of the land for stamping out, hunger and poverty and give him the Glory.
• As of Jan 2005, a comprehensive, peace agreement has been signed between the Sudan Islamic regime and the Sudan People liberation Army, which has paced the way to end the war in the south all together and have the citizen return from exile to take hold of their land.

The most important advantage is that the community will rise up as one entity to stamp out hunger and eradicate poverty from among them. They will be equipped with resources to feed their families, country, the New Sudan and other nations in need. By the nationals feeding their own, it will encourage the Sudanese people Liberation Movement in the South Sudan to tighten the security in the areas under their control so that the Islamic forces or the Ugandan thugs, known as the LRA will not be able to penetrate and cause havoc to the civilian population and thus this will encourage Sudanese now living in refuge to return back to their country to rebuild their land and restore the community and the church back to God. ONMI agricultural leadership on the ground will concentrate on growing food crops that will impact and provide the community with food for both long and short term period. We will be growing varieties of tropical food crops such as sorghum, corn, bean, cabbage, pumpkins, bean, potatoes, fruits bananas, pineapples, okra and several other crops.

Harvested food crop will be either given to feed the poor, who are in need indeed, such as the widows and orphans which the Bible instructs the church to look after and care for. By the grace of God, we will truck some food surplus through out the South Sudan to feed the poor and the needy under the leadership of the church. This will be ONMI commitment to tithing and offering to the house of God to bless the pastors and their flock. The surplus will be sold for money and the fund will be put back to manage the ongoing agricultural development in Corom, new Sudan.