Food for four million people gone to waste in Sudan

5,690 tons of crops have been lost in Sudan in all stages of the food chain last year, Undersecretary Abdelgader Turkawi of the Ministry of Agriculture stated.

The director of the Technical Department of Food Security at the Ministry, Fatima Hasan El Tahir, said that the missing food is enough to feed almost four million people an entire year.

The Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Sudan described the crop losses as unacceptable and attributed them to poor producer capabilities and poor storage.

Turkawi announced the development of a strategic FAO plan of action to reduce the waste of food.

Last week Sudan’s Ministry of Agriculture announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding with the UN World Food Programme (WFP) to combat post-harvest crop loss.

One of the solutions is providing effective and inexpensive sealed sacks to keep crops from insects and mice.

The Acting Country Director of the World Food Programme (WFP) in Sudan, Hani Muslimi, said last week that an estimated 30 per cent of all crops harvested in Sudan is lost due to traditional storage. This equals $1 billion each year.

Muslimi was speaking at a WFP training workshop aimed at reducing post-harvest losses. The WFP supports 4.4 million people in Sudan. It aims to reach 6 million people this year and improve their food security and therefore their economic situation.

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