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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Sudan
Index
Cultivation dependent on rainfall falls into two categories.
Most Sudanese farmers always have relied on rainfed farming. In
addition to these traditional farmers, a large modern mechanized
rainfed agriculture sector has developed since 1944-45, when a
government project to cultivate the cracking clays of central
Sudan started in the Al Qadarif area of Ash Sharqi Province,
largely to meet the food needs of army units stationed in the
British colonies in eastern Africa (present-day Kenya, Tanzania,
and Uganda). An average of about 6,000 hectares a year was
cultivated between 1945 and 1953, producing chiefly sorghum,
under a sharecropping arrangement between the government and
farmers who had been allocated land in the project. These estates
proved costly, however, and in 1954 the government began
encouraging the private sector to take up mechanized farming in
the area, a policy that continued after Sudan gained independence
in 1956. Under the new approach, the government established
several state farms to demonstrate production methods and to
conduct research. Research activities have been very limited,
however, because of staffing and funding problems, and the farms
have been operated essentially as regular production units.
The private sector response was positive, and by 1960
mechanized farming had spread into other areas of the cracking
clay zone in Ash Sharqi and Al Awsat provinces. The government
set aside rectangular areas that were divided into plots of 420
hectares (later raised in places to 630 hectares) each. Half of
these plots were leased to private farmers, the other half left
in fallow. After four years, the originally leased land was to be
returned to fallow and the farmer was to receive a new lease to
an adjacent fallow area. When the demand for land grew faster
than it could be demarcated, areas outside the designated project
limits were taken over by private individuals. The four-year
lease proved unpopular because it meant new investment in
clearing land every four years, and apparently much of the worked
land continued to be cultivated while fallow land was also placed
under cultivation. By 1968 more than 750,000 hectares were being
cultivated, of which it was estimated that more than 200,000
hectares constituted unauthorized holdings. The average
agricultural production growth rate declined, however, from 2.9
percent in the period between 1965 and 1980, to 0.8 percent in
the period between 1980 and 1987, the latest available figures.
Reportedly, for the 1991-92 season, the Ministry of Agriculture
and Natural Resources planned for about 7.3 million hectares of
food crops to be planted, with about 1.6 million hectares planted
in the irrigated sector and about 5.7 million hectares in the
rain-fed areas.
The investment requirements for mechanized farming favored
prosperous cultivators, and eventually most farms came to be
operated by entrepreneurs who raised capital through mortgageable
property or other assets in the urban centers. Through
arrangements with other individuals, these entrepreneurs
frequently managed to control additional plots beyond the legal
limit of two. Their ability to obtain capital also permitted them
to abandon depleted land and to move into newly demarcated
uncleared areas, a practice that had a deleterious impact upon
the environment, deprived the indigenous inhabitants of work
opportunities, and increased desertification. In 1968, to expand
the operator base and to introduce more control over land
allocation, crops, and farming methods, the government
established the Mechanized Farming Corporation (MFC), an
autonomous agency under the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural
Resources. From 1968 through 1978, the IDA made three loans to
the government to enable the MFC to provide technical assistance,
credit for landclearing and machinery, and marketing aid to
individual farmers and cooperative groups. The MFC also became
the operator of state farms.
In the late 1970s, about 2.2 million hectares had been
allocated for mechanized farming, and about 420,000 hectares more
had been occupied without official demarcation. About 1.9 million
hectares in all were believed to be under cultivation in any one
season. Of the officially allocated land, more than 70 percent
was held by private individuals. Private companies had also begun
entering the field, and some allocations had been made to them.
State farms accounted for another 7.5 percent. About 15 percent
of the total allocated land was in MFC-IDA projects. The largest
proportion of mechanized farming was in Ash Sharqi Province, 43
percent; the next largest in Al Awsat Province, 32 percent; and
about 20 percent was in Aali an Nil Province. Mechanized farming
had also been initiated in southern Kurdufan Province through a
project covering small-scale farmers in the area of the Nuba
Mountains, but under a different government program. Proposals
also have been made for MFC projects using mechanized equipment
in other areas of southern Kurdufan (some have already been
tried) and southern Darfur provinces. There were serious
feasibility problems in view of competition for land and
conflicts with traditional farming practices, difficult soil
conditions, and the probable negative effect on the large numbers
of livestock of nomads.
Only a few crops had been found suitable for cultivation in
the cracking clay area. Sorghum had been the principal one, and
during the early 1980s it was planted on an average of about 80
percent of the sown area. Sesame and short-fiber cotton were also
grown successfully but in relatively smaller quantities, sesame
on about 15 percent of the land and cotton on about 5 percent.
Soil fertility has reportedly been declining because of the
continued planting of sorghum and the lack of crop rotation.
Yields have apparently decreased, but in view of the area's
greatly varying climatic conditions and the uncertain production
data, definitive conclusions on trends appeared premature.
Data as of June 1991
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