By AFP - Agence France Presse
War decimates harvest in famine-stricken Sudan.
GEDAREF, Sudan: Ahmed Othman's farm has been spared from the deadly fighting that has spread across Sudan, but the toll that the war is taking on the economy and labor market has still reached him.
“I had to sell two vehicles” to afford this season's harvest, he told AFP from his large sesame farm in the eastern Sudanese state of Gedaref.
The war in Sudan between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has been going on for a year and a half, has caused one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world and destroyed harvests.
Last month, United Nations experts accused the warring parties of using “starvation as a tactic” against 25 million civilians, and three major aid organizations warned of a “historic” hunger crisis as families resort to eating leaves and insects.
Hundreds of farmers have been displaced from their once-fertile land and those who have been able to stay face enormous difficulties.
The state of Gedaref is crucial for corn production in Sudan, an important crop for a population facing famine, according to the World Food Program.
“The first challenge for us was to secure financing because the banks are short of money due to the war,” said Othman.
Even in army-controlled Gedaref, there was a shortage of money after the RSF took the capital, Khartoum, and looted the banks.
The farmer said that without selling two of his three vehicles, he would not have been able to afford the fuel for the agricultural machinery, pay the workers to prepare the fields, and tend the crops.
“The second problem is the lack of agricultural laborers due to the war, which has restricted their freedom of movement between states,” he added.
Most laborers in Gedaref used to come from the neighboring states of Blue Nile and Sennar, as well as from Kordofan, which is further away.
However, the war restricted freedom of movement between states, leaving landowners like Othman with few laborers.
Another local farmer, Suleiman Mohamed, said, “The labor shortage has pushed up wages, so we rely on those who are already in the area, mostly Ethiopians,” who have been living as refugees in eastern Sudan for a long time.
In April 2023, war broke out between the army under the country's de facto ruler, Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, and the RSF, led by his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
Crop failures this season could exacerbate the hunger crisis, which is being made worse by restrictions on aid imports.
European and North American nations issued a joint statement last month accusing the warring parties of “systematically obstructing” relief efforts. They called on both sides to allow urgent assistance to millions of people in need.
In southern Gedaref, another farmer, Othman Abdelkarim, said many had already given up on this year's season.
“Most of us relied on ourselves for financing, and some just gave up and didn't plant anything,“ he said, pointing to an unplanted field west of his farm.
“This crisis will delay the harvest and affect quality,” he added.
The state agriculture department reported that nine million acres (3.6 million hectares) were cultivated in Gedaref this year – five million with corn and the rest with sesame, sunflower, peanuts, and cotton.
That is less than half of the approximately 20 million acres that were planted annually before the war.
Farmer Suleiman Mohamed fears that there is no hope for this season's harvest.
“With fewer workers and a delayed harvest, we will suffer losses, and some of the harvest will be lost,” he said from his farm in eastern Gedaref.
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