Sudanese farmers warn of failure of current agricultural season

The lack of diesel and soaring seed prices threaten agricultural projects in the eastern part of Sennar in eastern Sudan. Opposition parties predict a famine.

A farmer told Radio Dabanga from El Souki locality that the costs of ploughing a piece of land has doubled because of the scarcity of diesel in the country.

“The price of seeds, for instance of sesame, doubled as well,” he said. “For this reason, many farmers in El Souki, El Dindir, and Sennar localities have not been able to cultivate all our lands. We can call this season a big failure.”

Farmers of El Gezira and El Managil Scheme in central Sudan renewed their warnings of the failure of the current agricultural season owing to “weakened financial means, the renewed fuel crisis, reduced irrigation, and delayed rains”.

Cultivated crops in El Gezira have not received water so far.

The farmers complained as well about illegal permits distributed for farming outside the agricultural cycle.

Earlier this month, farmers in Darfur as well warned for the failure of the current agricultural season because of the high preparation costs.

‘Total collapse’

According to the National Umma Party, the economic situation in the country has reached “a state of total collapse and bankruptcy, foreshadowing real famine.

“We are entering a new phase in which the Khartoum regime has no choice but to admit its failure and respond to the wishes of the people by stepping down. Else it will certainly face an uprising,” Sarah Nugdallah, secretary-general of the party, said in a speech on Saturday.

The Communist Party of Sudan called on the Sudanese “to reject any increases in the prices of bread or fuel and to resist the imposition of fees on students” in a statement on Sunday.

The party pointed to the acute scarcity of bread and the months-long fuel crisis that is paralysing various sectors in the country.

It also criticised the soaring prices of school books and uniforms, the poor environment of most of the schools at the beginning of the school year in Khartoum on July 2.