Sudan: Farmland Shrinks and the Agricultural Sector Faces Severe Collapse Due to the War
Sudan’s agricultural sector, the lifeline of the country’s economy, is witnessing a severe collapse that has significantly affected the gross domestic product.
Cultivated areas in the country have shrunk to 35%, according to initial estimates by experts and specialists.
This deterioration comes as a direct result of the ongoing war, with experts confirming that a total of 25 million Sudanese are now threatened by a devastating famine.
Mohammed Badr Al-Din, a former employee at the Sudanese Ministry of Agriculture, told “Sudan Tribune” that about 60% of the agricultural land that was used before the war has gone out of production due to the conflict.
He confirmed a decline in funding, which has affected major projects such as the Gezira Scheme, where 55% of its lands are now out of the agricultural cycle.
He revealed new information indicating that the production of grains such as sorghum has fallen to less than three million tons, compared to about 5–6 million tons before the war.
Before the conflict, the agricultural sector represented 48% of the country’s GDP according to 2017 statistics (the last scientific count), and employed 61% of the workforce, according to economist Dr. Haitham Mohamed Fathi in “Sudan Tribune”.
But agricultural expert Hamid Abdel Latif Othman told the same outlet that the outbreak of war reduced agricultural production to less than one-tenth, pointing out that the sector has completely exited the Sudanese economic cycle, not just exports.
Othman added: “Most Sudanese are currently threatened with a devastating famine, especially with the shrinking cultivation of sorghum and wheat.”
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification report indicated that the current contribution of the agricultural sector to GDP has witnessed a sharp collapse, and it is no longer the dominant economic force it once was.
Haitham Fathi confirmed that Sudan has around 80 million feddans of unused agricultural land, representing 47% of the country’s total arable land.
Meanwhile, the experts confirmed that the actual cultivated area in both irrigated and rainfed sectors does not exceed one-tenth of the area cultivated in peacetime, compared to about 45 million feddans previously cultivated before the war.
They linked the accelerating decline in agricultural production to the internal and external displacement crisis, which has forced more than 12 million Sudanese from their homes within the country, and about 3 million refugees into neighboring states.
They noted that displacement is concentrated in major agricultural production areas such as Darfur, Kordofan, Gezira, and White Nile, which led to the complete disruption of farming and harvesting operations, worsening food insecurity for millions.
Reports indicate that displacement has affected agriculture nationwide, in addition to the loss of labor, farmers, pressure on agricultural zones, and loss of water and electricity sources.
The destruction of assets, infrastructure, and machinery once available to projects has further deepened the crisis in the sector.
A recent FAO report estimated that cultivated areas in Sudan have shrunk catastrophically from 18 million hectares to just 7 million.
The report stated that farmers have abandoned their lands and farms fleeing the war, leaving livestock without herding or care.
Photo: Shrinking frmlands Source: Yaffa News Network.
