MAIZE FARMING

Impact of Conflict and Shift to Coffee Production

The outbreak of conflict in South Sudan in 2016—and particularly the attack on the ECU campus in 2018—severely disrupted agricultural operations. The maize and poultry projects collapsed, leaving only a small cattle herd and a fledgling coffee demonstration garden intact.

Between 2017 and 2019, ECU focused on maintaining the cattle project while expanding the coffee demonstration garden.
In 2020, the coffee project showed promising results, growing from 100 trees to 1,000. This success encouraged the university to explore coffee farming as a sustainable income-generating venture.

The Coffee for Community Empowerment Initiative
In 2023, in partnership with Coworkers, a German mission organization, ECU expanded the coffee demonstration farm to 10,000 trees under the theme “Coffee for Community Empowerment, Life Transformation, and Sustainable Development.”
This initiative sought to position agriculture as a vehicle for economic growth, skills development, and hope in a region long affected by conflict and instability.

Scaling Up for Greater Impact

By 2025, ECU had scaled up its coffee farm from 14 acres to 64 acres, with 50 acres developed in the same year and over 20,000 new coffee seedlings planted between May and August.
The coffee project now stands as a beacon of resilience, innovation, and faith-driven development. It serves not just as an agricultural enterprise, but as a transformative model for self-reliance, youth empowerment, and sustainable community development.
For the people of Yei—and South Sudan more broadly—the ECU Coffee Project represents a renewed promise of economic opportunity, stability, and hope for the future.