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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Sudan
Index
The country's soils can be divided geographically into three
categories. These are the sandy soils of the northern and west
central areas, the clay soils of the central region, and the
laterite soils of the south. Less extensive and widely separated,
but of major economic importance, is a fourth group consisting of
alluvial soils found along the lower reaches of the White Nile
and Blue Nile rivers, along the main Nile to Lake Nubia, in the
delta of the Qash River in the Kassala area, and in the Baraka
Delta in the area of Tawkar near the Red Sea in Ash Sharqi State.
Agriculturally, the most important soils are the clays in
central Sudan that extend from west of Kassala through Al Awsat
and southern Kurdufan. Known as cracking soils because of the
practice of allowing them to dry out and crack during the dry
months to restore their permeability, they are used in the areas
of Al Jazirah and Khashm al Qirbah for irrigated cultivation.
East of the Blue Nile, large areas are used for mechanized
rainfed crops. West of the White Nile, these soils are used by
traditional cultivators to grow sorghum, sesame, peanuts, and (in
the area around the Nuba Mountains) cotton. The southern part of
the clay soil zone lies in the broad floodplain of the upper
reaches of the White Nile and its tributaries, covering most of
Aali an Nil and upper Bahr al Ghazal states. Subject to heavy
rainfall during the rainy season, the floodplain proper is
inundated for four to six months--a large swampy area, As Sudd,
is permanently flooded--and adjacent areas are flooded for one or
two months. In general this area is poorly suited to crop
production, but the grasses it supports during dry periods are
used for grazing.
The sandy soils in the semiarid areas south of the desert in
northern Kurdufan and northern Darfur states support vegetation
used for grazing. In the southern part of these states and the
western part of southern Darfur are the so-called qoz
sands. Livestock raising is this area's major activity, but a
significant amount of crop cultivation, mainly of millet, also
occurs. Peanuts and sesame are grown as cash crops. The
qoz sands are the principal area from which gum arabic is
obtained through tapping of Acacia senegal (known locally
as hashab). This tree grows readily in the region, and
cultivators occasionally plant hashab trees when land is
returned to fallow.
The laterite soils of the south cover most of western Al
Istiwai and Bahr al Ghazal states. They underlie the extensive
moist woodlands found in these provinces. Crop production is
scattered, and the soils, where cultivated, lose fertility
relatively quickly; even the richer soils are usually returned to
bush fallow within five years.
Data as of June 1991
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