Sudan’s Agricultural problems

Khartoum Monitor: June 13, 2002

http://www.khartoummonitor.com/news129.htm


Sudan’s Agricultural Problems Waiting to be Resolved

By Alfred Taban

Sudan’s agriculture is undergoing so much turmoil that the country’s very existence is now being called into question.

The ongoing food summit in Rome is a good time to reflect on our agriculture.

Sudan is one of the few countries in the world where enough food is produced to feed all it’s people and yet people are dying in the country due to hunger.

Sudan is also one of the few countries where many farmers are languishing in jail instead of being on their farms producing.
Sudan’s Agricultural problems revolve around markets, both local and foreign, lack of finance and technological improvement and expansion in mechanized farming.

Even during bad years, Sudan produces a lot of food and cash crops. Take sorghum or dura for example. Sudan has in the past few years produced at least 3.6 million tonnes of sorghum every year, enough for local consumption and export.
However, whenever there is a bumper crop, prices plummet, causing a crisis which knocks down farmers making them unable to repay their loans.

The result is that farmers are either unwilling or unable to engage in similar activities in the next year. A lot of them end up in jail, where many have displaced political prisoners at kobar prison.

During such a year of less activity, production drops and prices rise, causing anger amongst consumers.

The high prices attract the farmers once again, resulting in a bumper crop, the year after. The circle goes on and on.
This instability in both prices and production is behind the turmoil in the agricultural sector. The answer is of course the availability of markets. This is where the Rome summit is of great importance. Some countries preach trade liberalization and globalization but they practice protectionism and import restrictions.

Thus during abundance in our country, we find it difficult sometimes to export our produce, forcing us to sell at give away prices to the detriment of our farmers.
Internally it is the problem of transport and the war. Currently there is not enough food in many parts of the Greater Darfur due to a recurrent drought.

There is however abundance of grain in Al- Gedaref state and other parts of the country.

Transporting this grain from Al-Gedaref to Darfur is a nightmare due to the poor or non existent roads in the area.
Most parts of Southern Sudan need a lot of food which is available in Renk, also part of the South.

However the war has cut off many parts of the South making the delivery of food an almost impossible enterprise. Markets are of course not the only problems agriculture in Sudan faces.

Large mechanical agricultural farms have caused the uprooting of trees and soil degradation. This has assisted desertification and the resultant decrease in farming activities. These farms also help only a few people while the majority of the peasant farmers are squeezed to smaller and less fertile areas.
Unless mechanized farming is checked, subsistence farming on which the majority of the Sudanese people depend is in danger.

Projects such as the Gezira Scheme which has been a granary of Sudan since the times of the Pharaohs are hardly performing. Tenant farmers do not earn an adequate income from the crops and have to depend on income outside the Scheme to stay above the poverty line.

Management is too centralized, inefficient and overstaffed.

Lack of technological advancement, a discouraging taxation system and a general lack of incentive have crippled these schemes.

Thus we need to create and maintain markets for our crops, reduce the cost of production, develop high yield varieties of crops, put money in modern technology, mechanized farming and overhaul our irrigated schemes if we are to be assured of enough food for all of us.

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المجد لشعب السودان...المجد لأمة السودان

Sudan 2001 Non-oil Exports Fall to $322 mln-report

KHARTOUM, June 12 (Reuters) -Sudan's non-oil exports for 2001 dropped to $322 million from $494 million in the year-ago period, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Al-Ayam newspaper, quoting a finance ministry report, said oil and oil derivatives exports were at $1.4 billion. The report did not give comparison figures for the oil exports.

Imports increased to $1 billion, up two percent from 2000.

The report said the government planned to double non-oil export revenues to reach $600 million by the end of 2002.




المجد لشعب السودان...المجد لأمة السودان

Sultan,

That is great. Hope this kind of documentary posting will not cease. Please, Sultan.

Let me add this: I was almost crying why Albasheer delivered his speech in that conference straight in Arabic?

I'm not against usage of Arabic but at that forum and in that enivronment English as "everybody language" should have been used.

Salam Sultan ..
It is really nice to see u around with such an intersting article ..
what is going on nowadays in the agricultural fields in Sudan is really devastating... specially the Gezira Scheme ... Farmers now are one of the lowest income groups in the society , and there used to be a time when Girls used to sing for the (rich farmer)!!!!
Hawary has addressed the same topic before but in a more dramatic way in this post
http://www.sudaneseonline.com/cgi-bin/sdb/2bb...&msg=1023721550&rn=1

Banadieha and Alsara,

Thanks!

Unfortunately, our country is being transformed into a rentier economy that is extremely dependent on oil.
Agricultural exports in 2000-2001 fell by 54%. This is still where the majority of activate participants in production are employed by agriculture!


AlSara,

Thanks for the link!

I read your are about to leave to bigger and better things – may success be your companion – and I for one will miss your input as rare as it was!




المجد لشعب السودان...المجد لأمة السودان