Sudanese farmers face the possibility of rotten wheat

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Sudan is faced with a crisis of wheat and bread.

Nevertheless, bags of wheat are piled up in the house of Sudanese farmer, Imad Abdullah, due to the economic hardships that the government of Sudan is going through, which usually buys its crop annually.

Abdullah finished harvesting his crops in March and was promised 43,000 Sudanese pounds ($75) per 100 kilograms, an incentive price set by the government to encourage farmers to grow wheat. However, the sacks of wheat did not leave his house at Aloota in Al Gezira state, south of Khartoum.

Abdullah, 45, told AFP: "It's been two months since I collected the crop and I can't store it at home anymore. It's bothering my family, especially since we do not have stores ready to keep it.”

Abdullah shares his plight with thousands of Sudanese farmers who grow wheat as part of the Gezira Agricultural Project, the largest in Sudan.

"I planted wheat this season on an area of ​​16 acres and filled 120 sacks in quantities that weighed 12 tons," said farmer Mudawi Ahmed in the state of Al-Gezira, adding that "the Agricultural Bank agreed to buy less than half of the quantity that is produced, and I fear that the other half will spoil before it is released." 

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Agricultural expert Abdul Karim Omar explains that wheat can retain its validity for up to a year and a half when stored in silos, provided that temperature and humidity are maintained, but "it can spoil in less than three months if the storage location is not appropriate."

Last month, dozens of wheat farmers in the northern state staged a protest in front of the Agricultural Bank after it refused to receive their harvest.

For decades, the project contributed to covering part of Sudan's total wheat needs, amounting to 2.2 million tons annually. However, this year, the Sudanese authorities were unable to purchase the entire quantities of wheat, leaving farmers scrambling to vacate their stores.

Sudan has been suffering from a worsening economic crisis since the Sudanese army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, carried out a military coup, on October 25. It is important to highlight that Sudan has been going through a transitional period after the fall of former President Omar al-Bashir in 2019.

They say that this coup prompted the governments of Western countries to cut off financial aid to Sudan.

The end of an era

According to a report issued by the United Nations in 2021, Khartoum's wheat imports from both Moscow and Kiev constitute between 70 and 80 percent of Sudan's needs. Since the beginning of the Russian military operation in Ukraine, countries that depend on the two conflicting countries for their imports have suffered the greatest consequences.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO, expected in March that local wheat production this year would cover only a quarter of Sudan's wheat needs.

The Sudanese Ministry of Finance said, earlier this month, that it is committed to forming a strategic national reserve of wheat amounting to 300,000 tons, but an official in the Agricultural Bank in Gezira State, who preferred not to be named, said that “the bank has no money to buy this wheat general."

The Governor of the Gezira Project, Omar Marzouk, said, "The farmers are asking the government to buy wheat, and if it does not respond, they will not grow it again." He added, "The government's cessation of wheat purchase incurred losses for farmers, especially since the prices offered by merchants wishing to buy are low."

With the start of the new planting season, farmers were not enthusiastic about preparing or plowing their land. 

One of the officials of farmers' organizations in Gezira state, Kamal Sari, fears that "the farmers' reluctance to grow wheat will affect the provision of food for the Sudanese citizen in general.”

This is a growing problem that the Sudanese people will continue to struggle with unless radical solutions get implemented.