Sudan’s agricultural potential still only partially realised* Mark T Jones
In a diary entry written at Wad Medani on 18th January 1952 Tom Driberg (1905-1976) wrote: “Economically and socially, the most hopeful phenomenon – both in actual achievement and as a model to the Sudan and the world – is the famous Gezira irrigation scheme, an hour or two south-east of Khartoum, with headquarters at Wad Medani: ‘an African T.V.A.’, it has been called. I was fortunate enough to get a lift to the Gezira in a pest-control ‘plane; so that from the air I got a vivid impression, which I could not have got from the dead-flat, dusty desert roads, of the scheme’s vast extent and mathematically precise planning. It is a million acres big. On each side of us, for as far as I could see, stretched an intricate network of major and minor canals and distributaries, three thousand two hundred and twenty-four miles of them, gleaming as straight as railway lines till they vanished on the horizon, fertilising some twenty-eight thousand holdings of cotton and food crops. The Gezira scheme dates from 1925. It was nationalised last year. It is a partnership between Government, tenants, and Board: they get, respectively, forty, forty, and twenty per cent of the profits. Last year, cotton prices being what they were, the tenants drew some £700 each – a princely income in relation to the average standards of living in the Sudan.” 1 For an evocative glimpse into the transformation of the period of the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium the documentary They Planted a Stone (1953) makes fascinating viewing: http://www.colonialfilm.org.uk/node/1022 In the 60 years or so since this entry was written Sudan has undergone enormous political change, yet remains a country full of particular promise in regards to agriculture. The expansion of the Roseiris Dam (its length has been increased from 13km to 25km) has boosted power supply and enabled yet more fertile soil to be irrigated and thus brought into production. Of the estimated 2 million hectares of irrigated land approximately half comprises land managed as part of the Gezira scheme (http://gezira-scheme.com/) Foreign Investment primarily from Arab and Chinese concerns is beginning to have an impact in a country that is readjusting after having had to part with the oil-rich South. Lebanese-based GLB Invest SAL has recently rented 87,200 acres to the north of Khartoum with the aim of producing 40,000 per annum building up to 750,000 tons p.a. of animal feed by 2019. Local companies such as Dal Group (www.dalgroup) are doing good business and are capable of producing quality products and services. That said, there is anecdotal evidence that local financial mechanisms are somewhat lacking in understanding of the particular needs of those wishing to be successful in farming. 2 The agricultural sector still tends to rely on rain fed farming, lacks seed banks, and is in need of innovation and mechanisation that said, for those prepared to commit to the country