ENTEBBE, Uganda, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) chief Jose Graziano da Silvaon Thursday said the agency will continue supporting South Sudan refugees in Uganda to boost their food production.
Jose Graziano da Silva, told reporters here 40 km south of the capital Kampala that it is critical to increase the food production of the refugees in the wake of dwindling supply of humanitarian aid.
He said the UN agency will supply the refugees with quick maturing seeds and equip them with better farming skills.
"Government is giving them a piece of land where FAO provides technical assistance and seeds for them to grow cow peas, maize, beans and vegetables. With that they can start to produce at least part of their own food and not only rely on the food assistance," he said.
Silva had just returned from visiting a South Sudan refugee settlement in northern Uganda on Wednesday where he launched a drip irrigation project.
According FAO figures, the agency has in recent years implemented more than 3 million U.S. dollars' worth of projects to support the South Sudan refugees in Uganda.
Some of the support includes providing them with locally-adapted and diversified seeds to grow quick-maturing, high-nutrient foods as well as with kits for livestock treatment, poultry production and micro-irrigation.
Uganda is host to more than 1 million South Sudan refugees since fighting broke out in the country in late 2013.
Relief agencies say they are grappling with feeding the influx of refugees in the face of dwindling donor support.
The United Nations World Food Programme says it needs approximately 20 million dollars per month to provide food assistance to refugees at full rations.
The food aid agency however cut the rations it gives to some refugees to more than 50 percent because of limited funding.
