Sudanese Farmers Warn of Failing Harvests as Hunger Rises

Women display vegetables for sale in a residential area in Khartoum, Sudan, March 22, 2022. Picture taken March 22, 2022. (Reuters)
Women display vegetables for sale in a residential area in Khartoum, Sudan, March 22, 2022. Picture taken March 22, 2022. (Reuters)
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Sudanese Farmers Warn of Failing Harvests as Hunger Rises

Women display vegetables for sale in a residential area in Khartoum, Sudan, March 22, 2022. Picture taken March 22, 2022. (Reuters)
Women display vegetables for sale in a residential area in Khartoum, Sudan, March 22, 2022. Picture taken March 22, 2022. (Reuters)

On the fertile clay plains of Sudan's Gezira Scheme, farmers would have normally started tilling the soil weeks ago before planting out rows of sorghum, or peanuts, sesame and other cash crops.

Instead, in a country stalked by sharply rising hunger, swathes of the 8,800 square km (3,400 square mile) agricultural project lie untouched.

Farmers who spoke to Reuters say the government, which has been cut off from billions of dollars in international financing following a coup in October, failed to buy their wheat under promised terms earlier this year.

That, they say, means they did not have the money to fund the new crop now.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has further complicated the outlook, driving prices for inputs such as fertilizer and fuel to new highs.

That puts current and future seasons in jeopardy, the farmers say, in an unstable country where the humanitarian situation has deteriorated and it is unclear how authorities will afford to finance imports of increasingly pricey food.

The finance ministry did not comment directly on the farmers' statements about wheat purchases, but told Reuters it was making efforts to provide the necessary funding.

The ministry said in a statement on Tuesday it had committed to buying up to 300,000 tons of wheat and 200,000 tons of sorghum, together costing more than $300 million, and was seeking funds from the central bank.

Reuters spoke to more than 20 farmers at the Gezira Scheme, a vast irrigation project just south of the capital Khartoum. All described the situation as desperate, and most said they feared bankruptcy and even prison for not paying back debts.

One, Nazar Abdallah, said he took out loans assuming that the government would buy his wheat at 43,000 Sudanese pounds (about $75.40) per sack, as was agreed last year.

Dozens of those 100 kg sacks of grain, now stored under a leaky roof, should have been sold in March.

If his crop spoils, he fears he will have no way to repay his debt. "If it rains, I'll be sent straight to jail, no question," he said, pointing at the holes in the ceiling.

Similar problems plague Gadaref, the eastern state where much of the country's traditional grain, sorghum, is grown.

"We buy the fertilizer and fuel at high prices and then when we come to sell our harvest we don't find a market. The government is impoverishing us," said a sorghum farmer there, who asked to remain anonymous to avoid involvement in politics.

"The summer season is threatened with collapse. Fifty percent, seventy percent of us might not plant. And that puts the food supply in question," Ahmed Abdelmagid, another Gezira farmer, said.

Roadshows
Farmers' woes predate the coup. They are tied to an economic crisis that began under former leader Omar al-Bashir, subsidy reforms pursued by the transitional government and global cost pressures that started before the war in Ukraine.

Last year, the state-owned Agricultural Bank, which has long supported farmers and bought up their wheat for strategic reserves, failed to provide fertilizer and seeds as prices rose, farmers said.

The Agricultural Bank, as well as Sudan's central bank and agriculture ministry, did not respond to requests for comment.

The cost of fuel for farmers rose more than 6,500% in 2021 from a year earlier, according to a UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report published in March. The price for fertilizer, normally provided under the wheat purchase agreement, rose 800%, causing farmers to cut back on its use.

The report also blamed erratic rains, pest infestations, conflict and irrigation issues for a drop of more than 35% in production this year of Sudan's three key staples - wheat, sorghum, and millet.

This year, the FAO says Sudan faces a rare sorghum deficit.

Just a year ago, the transitional government was out doing roadshows to market Sudan's huge untapped agricultural potential to investors as the economy began to open up following Bashir's overthrow during mass protests in 2019.

Its work was abruptly halted by the coup, which ended a fractious power-sharing arrangement between civilians and the military. Amid political deadlock and anti-military demonstrations, economic activity has stagnated.

Hunger
The UN World Food Program estimates that the number of people facing crisis or emergency levels of hunger, the stages preceding famine, will double this year in Sudan to 18 million, out of a population of 46 million.

And Sudan's food security worries could get worse.

Even with global wheat prices at record levels, Sudan imported 818,000 tons in Jan-March, three times more than the same period in 2021, central bank figures show.

Though the local wheat harvest makes up a fraction of consumption, the government subsidy for wheat farmers forms a necessary, if unsustainable, backbone for agricultural activity, FAO representative Babagana Ahmadu said.

"Without it, the situation will get out of hand," he added.

Abdallah and other farmers in Gezira would typically grow sorghum and key export crops during the upcoming summer season, using the profits they made from the government's wheat purchases.

But Gezira Scheme governor Omar Marzoug said no financing was available, government or private.

Sudan's military leadership has said it is addressing the issue. Farmers criticized a recent purchasing announcement as having prohibitive conditions.

Deprived of cashflow, they are waiting, selling small amounts at the market rate of around 28,000 pounds ($49.12) per sack to make ends meet. Farm machinery lies idle.

The farmer in Gadaref said he and his peers would likely reduce their planting of key exports like sesame by up to 80% if financing wasn't received this month.

"I expect there will be worse problems in the upcoming harvests without a radical change," University of Gadaref agriculture professor Hussein Sulieman said. "And I don't expect a radical change."



Trump’s Foreign Policy: End Ukraine War, Buy Greenland, Target Mexican Cartels 

Pastries decorated with an eatable portrait of US President-elect Donald Trump are presented by Ursula Trump in a bakery in Freinsheim, Germany, January 20, 2025. (Reuters)
Pastries decorated with an eatable portrait of US President-elect Donald Trump are presented by Ursula Trump in a bakery in Freinsheim, Germany, January 20, 2025. (Reuters)
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Trump’s Foreign Policy: End Ukraine War, Buy Greenland, Target Mexican Cartels 

Pastries decorated with an eatable portrait of US President-elect Donald Trump are presented by Ursula Trump in a bakery in Freinsheim, Germany, January 20, 2025. (Reuters)
Pastries decorated with an eatable portrait of US President-elect Donald Trump are presented by Ursula Trump in a bakery in Freinsheim, Germany, January 20, 2025. (Reuters)

Republican President-elect Donald Trump says he plans to acquire Greenland, bring the war in Ukraine to a close and fundamentally alter the US relationship with NATO during his second four-year term. In recent weeks, he has also threatened to seize the Panama Canal and slap Canada and Mexico with 25% tariffs if they do not clamp down on the flow of drugs and migrants into the United States.

Here is a look at the foreign policy proposals Trump has pledged to advance once he takes office on Monday:

NATO, UKRAINE AND EUROPEAN ALLIES

Trump has said that under his presidency, the United States will fundamentally rethink "NATO's purpose and NATO's mission."

He has pledged to ask Europe to reimburse the United States for "almost $200 billion" in munitions sent to Ukraine, and he has not committed to sending further aid to the Eastern European nation. Trump cut defense funding to NATO during the latter part of his first term, and he has frequently complained that the United States was paying more than its fair share. In recent weeks, he has said NATO members should be spending 5% of gross domestic product on defense, a figure well above the current 2% target.

On the war in Ukraine, Trump said during the 2024 election campaign that he would resolve the conflict even before his inauguration. But since his election, he has not repeated that pledge and advisers now concede it will take months to reach any peace agreement.

Trump has indicated that Kyiv may have to cede some territory to reach a peace agreement, a position backed by his key advisers. While there is no fully fleshed-out Trump peace plan, most of his key aides favor taking NATO membership off the table for Ukraine as part of any peace agreement, at least for the foreseeable future. They also broadly support freezing the battle lines at their prevailing location.

While Trump signaled in early April that he would be open to sending additional aid to Ukraine in the form of a loan, he remained mostly silent on the issue during contentious congressional negotiations over a $61 billion aid package later that month.

TERRITORIAL EXPANSION

In mid-December, Trump said he planned to acquire Greenland, an idea he briefly floated during his 2017-2021 term. His previous efforts were foiled when Denmark said its overseas territory was not for sale.

But Trump's designs on the world's largest island have not abated. During a January press conference, Trump refused to rule out invading Greenland, portraying the island as crucial for US national security interests. Trump has also threatened to seize the Panama Canal in recent weeks, blaming Panama for overcharging vessels that transit the key shipping route.

Trump has also mused about turning Canada into a US state, though advisers have privately portrayed his comments regarding the United States' northern neighbor as an example of trolling, rather than a true geopolitical ambition.

CHINA, TRADE AND TAIWAN

Trump frequently threatens to impose major new tariffs or trade restrictions on China, as well as on many close allies.

His proposed Trump Reciprocal Trade Act would give him broad discretion to ramp up retaliatory tariffs on countries when they are determined to have put up trade barriers of their own. He has floated the idea of a 10% universal tariff, which could disrupt international markets, and at least a 60% tariff on China.

Trump has called for an end to China's most favored nation status, a designation that generally lowers trade barriers between nations. He has vowed to enact "aggressive new restrictions on Chinese ownership of any vital infrastructure in the United States," and the official Republican Party platform calls for banning Chinese ownership of American real estate.

On Taiwan, Trump has declared that it should pay the United States for its defense as, he says, it does not give the US anything and took "about 100% of our chip business," referring to semiconductors. He has repeatedly said that China would never dare to invade Taiwan during his presidency.

MEXICO, CANADA AND NARCOTICS

Trump has said he would slap Mexico and Canada with broad 25% tariffs if they do not stem the flow of drugs and migrants into the United States. Mexican and Canadian leaders have sought to prove they are serious about taking on illegal immigration and the narcotics trade, though Trump's actual Day One plans for tariffs on the country's neighbors are unclear.

Trump has said he would designate drug cartels operating in Mexico as foreign terrorist organizations and order the Pentagon "to make appropriate use of special forces" to attack cartel leadership and infrastructure, an action that would be unlikely to obtain the blessing of the Mexican government.

He has said he would deploy the US Navy to enforce a blockade against the cartels and would invoke the Alien Enemies Act to deport drug dealers and gang members in the United States.

Civil rights groups and Democratic Party senators have pushed for the repeal of that act, passed in 1798, which gives the president some authority to deport foreign nationals while the country is at war.

The Republican Party platform also calls for moving thousands of troops deployed overseas to the US-Mexico border to battle illegal immigration.

CONFLICT IN GAZA

Trump's Middle East envoy-designate, Steve Witkoff, worked closely alongside officials in the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden to hash out the peace deal announced earlier in January between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas. Sources close to the talks said he applied significant pressure on both sides to strike an accord quickly, though the precise details of his involvement are still coming out in the press.

After first criticizing Israeli leadership in the days after its citizens were attacked by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, Trump later said the group must be "crushed." Trump had said there would be "hell to pay" if Israel and Hamas did not reach a ceasefire deal resulting in the return of hostages held by the Palestinian militant group in Gaza before he takes office.

IRAN

Trump's advisers have indicated they will renew the so-called maximum pressure campaign of his first term against Iran.

The maximum pressure campaign sought to use vigorous sanctions to strangle Iran's economy and force the country to negotiate a deal that would hobble its nuclear and ballistic weapons programs.

The Biden administration did not materially loosen the sanctions that Trump put in place, but there is debate about how vigorously the sanctions were enforced.

CLIMATE

Trump has repeatedly pledged to pull out of the Paris Agreement, an international accord meant to limit greenhouse gas emissions. He pulled out of it during his term in office, but the US rejoined the accord under Biden in 2021.

MISSILE DEFENSE

Trump has pledged to build a state-of-the-art missile defense "force field" around the US. He has not gone into detail, beyond saying that the Space Force, a military branch that his first administration created, would play a leading role in the process.

In the Republican Party platform, the force field is referred to as an "Iron Dome," reminiscent of Israel's missile defense system, which shares the same name.