The international community must urgently step up efforts to rescue the planting season in Sudan and support desperate farmers, Islamic Relief says.
As Sudan’s brutal conflict enters its third month, many farmers have been unable to plant at the start of the rainy season – the country’s main agricultural planting period. If farmers can’t plant now the impact will be catastrophic, ruining the next harvest later this year and plunging millions more people into hunger and destitution.
Agricultural experts told Islamic Relief that some farmers in Sudan have become so hungry they have resorted to eating their seed stocks and now have none left to plant. Families are eating sorghum and millet seeds because they have no other food, with the situation in Darfur, Kordofan, White Nile and Sennar particularly desperate.
The conflict has forced many smallholder farmers from their land and destroyed their seed stocks and markets. The rising price of fertiliser and seeds, and the ongoing disruption to the banking system and lack of access to cash, means that many other farmers can’t afford to buy more or run critical machinery.
Agriculture makes up about 40% of Sudan’s GDP and employs around 80% of the country’s workforce, so a collapse of the agricultural sector would be devastating for the entire country.
Humanitarian agencies continue to do everything we can to get aid to people in need. Over the past few weeks, Islamic Relief has delivered food aid to more than 40,000 people in Central Darfur and Al Jazirah, and is supporting health centres in Darfur to treat malnourished children and pregnant women. We are also planning to distribute seeds to farmers in Gedaref states and South Kordofan.
However, there continue to be major security, bureaucratic and logistical challenges in delivering aid across Sudan – and much more needs to be done to get seeds and other vital support to farmers as soon as possible.
This week’s international donor conference pledged $1.5 billion for the overall humanitarian response in Sudan, but the impact will depend on how quickly the promised funds materialise and reach people on the ground.
After two months of heavy fighting more than 2.2 million people have now fled their homes and over 2,000 people have been killed. Many of the displaced families now say that food is their biggest and most urgent need. More than 17 million people across Sudan are now going hungry, with young children particularly at risk. Over 3 million children are now malnourished.
Yusuf Roble, Islamic Relief’s Regional Director for East Africa, says:
“More and more people in Sudan are going hungry and facing a daily struggle to feed themselves and their children. The conflict is now stopping farmers from planting their seeds and it’s increasingly likely they will not have a good harvest later this year. Some of the most fertile and productive parts of the country are affected.
“International governments and donors must do all they can to rescue the planting season and help farmers in Sudan now. A poor planting season and harvest will be a catastrophe not only for Sudan but for the whole region. If people can’t eat, they will flee to wherever they can find food – driving further migration and adding to the 2.2 million people already uprooted by this conflict.”
A failed harvest in Sudan would also have significant impact in neighbouring countries such as South Sudan, which imports significant amounts of grain from Sudan, and potentially fuel further instability both in Sudan and beyond its borders.
