Thousands of farmers face ruin in Sudan’s El Gezira

Farmers of the eastern section of Taftish, Wad El Fadul, Haddaful Hurga, and Nuruldin of the El Gezira agricultural scheme in eastern Sudan have complained of the failure of the agricultural season as a result of their crops lacking water, compounded by the breakdown of the irrigation pumps.

The representative of the farmers associations in the eastern section, Abdullah Hassan Abdelgader, said that more than 2,650 farmers face bankruptcy and displacement due to the failure of the season.

Farmer Siddig Madras from Haddaful Hurga said that the Scheme’s administration has reduced the agricultural lands during the current planting season from 8,000 acres to about 2,500 acres due to irrigation problems.

El Remash

The El Gezira farmers’ complaints echo those of their colleagues in the El Remash Project in eastern Sudan’s Sennar, where delayed payments have resulted in the electricity provider cutting the supply, so the pumps cannot be run.

Last week, Radio Dabanga reported that The farms of the El Gezira’s El Rahad Agricultural Project are also in need of more irrigation water.

Abdallah Omar of the El Rahad Project management said in a press conference that the Project is facing problems because the amounts of water provided by the Ministry of Irrigation are “far from sufficient”.

The manager further criticised the farmers’ use of soap powder to combat bugs. He said that the soap does not work, and called on the farmers to use mineral oil instead.