International report: Middle East war threatens Sudan’s agricultural season and threatens to worsen hunger

KHARTOUM – OnePress

Sudan is facing increasing risks to its agricultural production this season, with soaring fuel and fertilizer prices caused by tensions and war in the Middle East threatening to deepen the hunger crisis that has gripped the country since the outbreak of war.

Farmers and experts in the agricultural sector have reported that large increases in the cost of production inputs have prompted many farmers to reduce cultivated areas or postpone farming operations, which threatens a significant reduction in the production of major food crops such as maize and millet, in addition to cash crops, mainly sesame.

Sudan is heavily dependent on imports of fertilizers from the Gulf states and has become almost entirely dependent on fuel imports because of the fallout from the internal war, making it more vulnerable to global market turmoil and rising prices.

According to the report, fertilizer prices rose by 67% compared to last year, while fuel prices used to operate agricultural pumps, machinery and equipment doubled, leading to an unprecedented rise in agricultural production costs.

A number of farmers said the expected yield from the crops no longer covered the cost of fuel and fertilizer, prompting many to scale back farming or consider stepping out of production temporarily.

Sudan is already facing one of the world’s worst food crises, with some 19.5 million people facing critical levels of food insecurity and some areas facing the risk of famine.

Experts at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said the new challenges were adding to the burden on a war-weary agricultural sector, warning that agricultural production could fall by at least 40 percent if current conditions persist without urgent interventions.

In the pre-war state of Gezira, one of the country’s most important grain-producing centers, farmers complained about deteriorating agricultural infrastructure, lack of funding and the high cost of inputs, asserting that many irrigation canals and pumps had not yet been catalogued for damage sustained during the fighting.

The report also pointed out that the areas of Kordofan and Darfur are facing more complex conditions due to continued insecurity, where farmers suffer from a lack of agricultural mechanisms and equipment is looted and difficult access to agricultural land, as well as widespread displacement that has led to a decline in agricultural labor.

Farmers from those areas said rain-fed plantings for the new season were proceeding slower than usual at a time of heightened fears of a sharp decline in the production of sesame, peanuts, gum arabic and millet.

For its part, the Ministry of Agriculture said that it is working on the establishment of new financing mechanisms in cooperation with the Agricultural Bank, as well as the implementation of programs to rehabilitate some irrigation projects and try to reduce the burden of fuel on producers, but observers believe that the magnitude of the challenges exceeds the possibilities currently available.

The report concludes that the continuation of the internal war, in conjunction with high fuel and fertilizer prices globally, may lead Sudan to a weak agricultural season, which threatens to increase the number of people in need of humanitarian aid and deepen the food crisis that the country is already experiencing.