This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

United Nations agencies are warning of food shortages next year in South Sudan. The Food and Agriculture Organization says the new country is likely to produce only half the food it needs this year. The FAO blames the situation on unpredictable rains, the return of thousands of refugees, and conflict.

In August, the FAO did a study called a rapid crop assessment. It estimated that farmers in South Sudan could produce, at most, five hundred thousand metric tons of food this year.