Sudan: Wheat project brings hope despite war
Sudan faces a potential food disaster, with the UN warning it could become the world’s largest food crisis. An AfDB-funded $75 million emergency wheat production project has increased wheat output by 70% in five states, meeting 22% of national demand. The project, implemented by the WFP, has helped produce 645,000 tonnes of wheat, aiding 16,000 displaced farmers. However, 2.1 million people still risk severe hunger without urgent aid.
Faced with an unprecedented food disaster, Sudan “risks experiencing the world’s biggest food crisis.”
In Sudan, an emergency wheat production project has produced promising results. Financed by the African Development Bank (AfDB) to the tune of $75 million and implemented by the World Food Programme (WFP) over a period of two years, it has enabled wheat production to be increased by almost 70 percent in five of the country’s targeted federated states by 2023.
“This development comes at a critical time for Sudan, which is facing an imminent food catastrophe as a result of the ongoing conflict, which slowed production during the last agricultural season,” said Nnenna Nwabufo, Managing Director of the African Development Bank for the East Africa region, said in a statement made available to APA.
Despite the war started in April 2023 by generals vying for state power, which has already claimed thousands of lives, Sudan has “great potential in agriculture, even in circumstances of active conflict, and with famine on the horizon, threatening millions of lives,” she said, adding that “this project has brought a lot of hope.”
“This year alone, 22 per cent of the national demand for wheat has been met thanks to the project. Its impressive results have demonstrated that there are viable solutions for increasing national production to address the rising levels of hunger and acute malnutrition in the country,” Mrs. Nwabufo enthused, saying she was “happy” to see that the scaled-up delivery of certified climate-resilient wheat seed varieties and fertiliser to smallholder farmers in target areas across the country had been timely, “saving a number of lives.”
The programme has been implemented in at least five states, namely Gezira, Kassala, Nile, White Nile and Northern States, relatively
stable areas in the north and east of the current war-torn Sudan, where “positive results” have been noted.
Mary Monyau, Senior Country Officer at the AfDB. it has helped to ensure “food security, with a yield of 645,000 tonnes of wheat this year, and has also become a critical crisis response intervention for internally displaced people,” she explained.
According to the pan-African financial institution, this year’s wheat yield of 645,000 tonnes represented “”22 per cent of Sudan’s total wheat consumption needs.” On average, farmers recorded a 44 per cent increase in productivity per hectare compared to the previous season.
Around 16,000 of the farmers, who received aid had been displaced by the conflict over the past 13 months. The project offered them support and resources to rebuild their livelihoods. In addition, 12 combine harvesters were provided to farmers’ associations in the Nile and Northern States to enable them to harvest more efficiently and significantly reduce losses, the AfDB said.
Despite these efforts, Sudan, which is facing an unprecedented food disaster, risks becoming the world’s biggest food crisis, it warned, citing a recent WFP analysis.
The UN agency has identified 41 pockets of famine in this East African country, noting that some 2.1 million people are at high risk of falling into phase five of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) if they do not receive urgent humanitarian aid.
Source Link: https://apanews.net/sudan-wheat-project-brings-hope-despite-war/
