La
Licorne
SUDAN,
AGRICULTURE
The peasant and the herdsman
Naturally Sudan's varied environment
accommodates a diversity of farming systems. The most common type is the
traditional farm of the savannah, which survives by the grace of the erratic
rains. It seldom exceeds 10 hectares in size. Land is roughly cleared of Acacia
and cropped up for some years. The low yields vary widely, reaching on the
average a few hundred kilogrammes per hectare for groundnuts and sorghum and
some one hundred kilogrammes per hectare for millet and sesame. When yields
drop the land is abandoned for up to twenty years in which period the
regenerated vegetation allows grazing and the production of gum arabic. In the
southern rain forests conditions allow the growth of a wide variety of crops
such as tea, coffee, oil palm, cassava and groundnut.
While livestock supplies the income of the
settled farmer, it is the only source of income for the nomads. Centuries-long
tradition has endowed these herdsman with a fine nose for the well being of
their animals: avoiding places where deseases break out and arriving on spots
where the vegetation springs. Both agriculture and desertification are taking
their toll of the rangelands. In addition to the considerable land take the new
developments are disrupting the nomadic trekking routes.
Traditional land-use provides a livelihood for
the largest segment of the population. The peasants are the main producer of
gum-arabic, life animals and hides, all important export earners. The trees of
the savannah are an indispensable source for timber and firewood for the entire
nation, besides being of high ecological value. By nature the traditional
sector functions as an informal sector on which the government has little hold.
As early as in 1925 all unregistered lands were
deemed to be the property of the government unless the contrary was proved.
Twenty five years later government started to claim this right in a big way for
agricultural development. From that time large state enterprises have been
established for irrigated agriculture along the main rivers, and vast tracts of
land been given out for mechanised rainfed farming in the savannah belt.
Large-Scale Irrigated Farming
With its 900,000 hectares Gezira Estate stands
for about half of
Sudan's irrigated area. The main staple crops are cotton, wheat and sorghum. A
parastatal organisation is responsible for the cropping plan, the provision of
inputs, land preparation, sowing, irrigation water and pest control, leaving
the tenants without responsibility but for their little garden plots.
All this stood a long way from the radical
privatisation deemed needed for the entire column: from the farms to supply and
services, leaving it to the farmers to identify areas for co-operation from
bottom up, free from government interference. In that view co-operatives for
irrigation would be established to replace the authoritive parastatals. Those
would engage with the Ministry of Irrigation into contracts for water delivery.
Agreements would contain penalties for non-compliance with the rules from
either side.
Another isssue concerned chemical spraying by
aeroplane. This practice requires a substantial area of the same crop in the
same stage of growth and hence a high degree of accord among the growers. That
stands in the way of free farm enterprise and spraying from the air should
henceforth be phased out. Also, such broadcasting for plant protection requires
much greater doses as compared to application on the ground. This is wasting
foreign exchange, and harmful for environment as well.
Mechanized rainfed farming
Mechanized rainfed farming is typically being
practised in areas of 400-700 mm rainfall per annum.
In recent years millions of hectares have been
allotted for mechanized rainfed farming. Among the local and foreign investors,
individuals, public and private joint ventures and societies of civil servants
can be found.
The allotments are rectangular blocks and the
boundaries are staked out irrespective of present waterways and herd trekking
routes. Windbreaks and shelter belts have not been provided.
In preparation for farming trees -including
Acacia- are felled and the remaining bush is cleared. This clearance
brings in good money from the sale of wood which may make good on the
investment. The farming system is straightforward. Weeding and seeding is
mechanised. The main crops are sorghum and sesame. Harvesting may be done
manually. So sesame is dried on the fields in upright bundles which are simply
turned upside down and shaken. No wonder that a lot of the tiny seeds are
getting lost in the process.
In the wake of the land occupation for
mechanized farming traditional farmers are deprived of their lands and the
traditional trekking routes broken up. As a result herdsmen have been running
into hostile settlers fearing crop damage and animal droppings dragging weeds
into their land. In reaction nomads have invaded the farms in groups resulting
in shoot-outs. There was report of 120 casualties of cattle [humans unquoted]
in one case, which probably stands for many more conflicts of the sort.
As long as this prevails, on the clays at least
reasonable farmland is obtained in return. Yet unreparable damage is done to
the sloping Qoz lands with their light textured shallow soils. These are
subjected to water and wind erosion. Out-farmed areas are left behind in
exchange for new occupations that have to endure a same fate. The nick names
given to this farm type and its owners are telling: 'Extractive Agriculture',
'Land Lords Farming', 'Hit and Run Farming', 'Suitcase Farmers' and 'Colonizers
of Land Resources'.
Rectification of mechanized farming allotments
is opportune. A healthy natural vegetation offers a better return as an
ill-devised mechanized farm. It would make sense to replace the holders of
non-used, under-utilised and ill-used allotments.
About half of the area under mechanized farming
has been given out under the title of 'undemarcated', which –freely
translated- means ‘somehow given out to somebody’. I couldn’t lay my
hands on any record, and -if they exist- they have well been stowed away down
under the bureaus of the local authorities. The registered ‘demarkated’
areas have been allocated in lots varying in size from a couple of hundred
hectares to over one hundred thousand hectares. The larger type is being
exploited by government affiliated institutions and investors from neighboring
Arab countries. On some of these isolated mini states the suspicion rests that
they are being used for the detention of national opposition, and as training
camp for terrorist activities abroad.
In the process the civil service is taking care
of itself by allocating prime land to societies of graduates established for
the occasion. At the rate of 400 hectares rain-fed land per member, a
society of -say- 50 members would exploit a farm of 20,000 hectares. The
returns of such farms handsomely supply the meagre government salaries of the
favoured ones.
For a 50 years lease an investment of L
10 per Feddan is needed. At the official exchange rate as of 23 October 1993,
one could acquire control over a block of 100,000 ha for the sum US$ 8000.
However not everyone is welcome. Most land is played into the hands of
investors, not farmers. As a consequence lots remain to lie idle, a high
incidence of absentee tenants occurs, and the common peasant is virtually
excluded from this major national asset. A new class of big farmers is created,
while the displaced labour force with and without family increases, as
does the influx of trainees for terrorist activities.
How to make agriculture meet the
needs
The vastness of Sudan has created a fiction of
limitless land resources. This perception needs review, because the expansion
for large scale farming is realised at the expense of traditional farming,
animal husbandry and forestry. The real constraint of production is not
the cultivated area, but the land productivity. The latter should be
supported with measures to clear the land rights, and to get the production
going by means of extension, credit, supplies, product handling and
marketing.