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Sudan
Rainfed Agriculture
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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