Can Sudan feed itself in the future?

Summary

Africa Daily – “Can Sudan feed itself in the future?”

Podcast: Africa Daily by BBC World Service
Host: Alan Kasuja
Guest: Professor Nizreen El Amin, Assistant Professor of Anthropology and African Studies, University of Toronto
Date: February 26, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this compelling episode, Alan Kasuja explores whether Sudan can overcome its current devastating food crisis and eventually feed itself. The conversation zeroes in on Al Jazeera State—once Sudan's agricultural breadbasket and home to the historic Gezira Scheme. Professor Nizreen El Amin, whose family hails from the region, steps in to shed light on the intricate history of land management, the impact of protracted war, and what could be done to reclaim Sudan’s agricultural potential.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Gezira Scheme: Sudan's Agricultural Heartland

• Background: Established by the British in 1925, nestled between the White and Blue Niles, and originally irrigated by the Sennaar Dam.
• Scale & Structure:
  • 2 million acres, gravity-irrigated via a massive network of canals (03:05).
  • Historically, land tenanted by farmers leasing from the state; extended family and labor from Fulani communities (03:49).
• Economic Role:
  • In the 1970s, the scheme produced about half of Sudan’s agricultural output and contributed 30% of its GDP (04:16).
  • Once seen as a potential breadbasket for the Middle East due to Gulf investment interests in the 70s-80s (05:16).

2. Land Ownership and Foreign Investment

• Unique Land Tenure:
  • Land within the scheme is privately owned, making dispossession by the state or investors difficult (05:51).
  • Contrast with communally owned, rain-fed land outside the scheme, more vulnerable to state appropriation under colonial-era laws (06:15).
• Foreign Land Grabs:
  • While Gulf investors struggled to acquire Gezira land, the government has handed over land outside the scheme—often leading to the cultivation of animal feed for export rather than food for Sudan (07:19).
  • Example: Emirati-controlled farm producing alfalfa and Rhodes grass for the Gulf’s dairy industry (07:19).
• Quote:
  • “They were unable to kind of get a hold of that land ... they're still vying for that land because, again, of its strategic location.” — Professor El Amin (16:42)

3. Crops and Their Changing Nature

• Traditional Crops:
  • Cotton, wheat, sorghum, groundnuts—often rotated (07:45).
  • Focus on cash crops led to ecological challenges; cotton and wheat are not well-suited to the land (08:12).
• Shift in Policy:
  • Post-2005 reforms further privatized the scheme, letting farmers choose crops but pushing even more towards cash crops and animal feed for export (08:10).
• Recent Trends:
  • Gulf demand has turned fertile Sudanese land towards export-oriented animal feed instead of domestic food security (08:34).

4. Historical Mismanagement and Its Consequences

• Privatization Effects:
  • Starting in the 1990s under the Bashir regime, the government withdrew agricultural support, leaving farmers with little institutional backing (09:41).
  • Technical staff collapsed from 10,000 to about 100 by the early 2000s, with maintenance of vital canals neglected (10:08).
  • Shift to private loans increased farmer debts and forced many out of agriculture (09:41–12:33).
• World Bank Involvement:
  • Structural adjustment policies pushed privatization, with dire long-term effects on food production (11:49).

5. War’s Immediate Impact: Displacement and Infrastructure Destruction

• RSF Occupation:
  • The Rapid Support Forces’ control led to mass displacement (~70% of farmers fled in the east), massacre, destruction of irrigation infrastructure, and looting of livestock (13:00–13:36).
  • Quote: “They looted 60% of the 11 million livestock in the Jazeera.” — Professor El Amin (13:36).
  • Grain storage facilities destroyed and agricultural operations halted.
• Return Under Military Control:
  • As the army regains control, some farmers return to ruined homes and infrastructure, restarting with small-scale, subsistence vegetable planting (14:23–14:46).
  • Communities rally to clear canals and plant in protected compounds for safety (14:46).

6. Strategic and Geopolitical Significance

• Why Control Jazeera?
  • The region's fertility and proximity to Khartoum make it a strategic prize for all armed groups and foreign interests (15:30–17:03).
  • Land is a “gold mine,” potentially as valuable a resource as Sudan’s gold in financing the ongoing war.
• Foreign Stakeholders:
  • Especially the UAE and Saudi Arabia continue to seek influence over Sudanese farmland, but the unique private land ownership complicates dispossession (16:18).

7. Rebuilding and Future Hope

• Community Resilience:
  • Despite devastation, local farmers and communities are launching their own replanting efforts and grassroots campaigns.
  • “What we are witnessing in Sudan right now should give us hope that the civilian population is very capable of running the country ... With the right kind of support, we can rebuild Sudan and this famine and hunger crisis can be addressed.” — Professor El Amin (17:03).
• Call for Investment in Local Leadership:
  • Meaningful recovery is only possible by investing in “people- and farmer-centered solutions” focused on staples like sorghum, not export-oriented crops or animal feed (14:46–17:03).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Gezira's Potential:
  "We're looking at ... 2 million acres of arable land that could easily feed the entire country, if not the region." — Professor Nizreen El Amin (04:56)

• On Privatization's Harm:
  “...by the early 2000s, there are about maybe 100 left [technical staff] ... and so that had a huge impact. ... the average Dazida farmer ... really suffered under these privatization policies.” — Alan Kasuja (09:41–10:34)

• On War’s Devastation:
  “They looted 60% of the 11 million livestock in the Jazeera ... sexual violence was used as a weapon of war.” — Professor El Amin (13:36)

• On the Way Forward:
  “There is an opportunity to really invest in a kind of people farmer centered solution to the current hunger crisis and to utilize the potential of the Jazira to feed not only the families that are returning, but also displaced people beyond the region.” — Alan Kasuja (14:46)

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Key Segments & Timestamps

• Introduction & Setting the Stage: 00:07–02:20
• Gezira Scheme History & Structure: 02:20–05:28
• Land Ownership Complexities: 05:28–07:19
• Changing Crops & Export Focus: 07:19–09:00
• Historical Policy Failures: 09:28–12:33
• Impact of War & Displacement: 12:33–14:45
• Farmer-Led Recovery & Grassroots Response: 14:45–15:30
• Jazeera's Strategic Importance: 15:30–17:03
• Closing Reflections on Community Resilience: 17:03–18:38

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Tone and Language

Throughout the episode, the tone is informative but urgent, blending academic rigor with personal testimony from Professor El Amin. Alan Kasuja’s questions are empathetic and probing, drawing out both historical understanding and present-day realities. The overall feel is one of cautious hope amid profound challenge—highlighting resourcefulness and resilience as key to Sudan’s possible recovery.

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This summary captures the essential discussions and analyzes the episode for anyone interested in Sudanese food security, agricultural policy, and the lasting impacts of war and mismanagement.

Transcript

[Alan Kasuja]

Foreign.

[BBC Host]

Hunger and lack of food is a daily nightmare for millions of people in Sudan after nearly two years of war between the Sudan Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces militia. But the potential to feed the nation with homegrown crops is there if the farmers were able to work without fear of attack from either side, and that's a big if. Today we are going to focus on one region, Al Jazeera State, which is the agricultural heartland of Sudan. Before the war, it had over one third of the irrigated farmland in the country. Now much of that land lies unused as people flee the fighting. But there is a longer history of government mismanagement of the land, which has also contributed to Sudan's current catastrophic food shortages. So today we are asking, can Sudan feed itself in the future? I'm Alan Kasuja and this is Africa Daily. Most of the best farming land in Africa, Al Jazeera, is contained within a historic canal system known as the Jezeera Scheme, which started operating 100 years ago. These canals are now dry and the farmland is unable to produce the food the country so desperately needs due to the war, which has seen both sides fight for control of the state. But it wasn't producing enough food crops even before the war started. To find out why that was the case and how the Jazira Scheme is a potential answer to Sudan's future food needs, I turn to Professor Nizreen El Amin. Many of her family are from Al Jazeera. It's her home state. She's assistant professor of Anthropology and African Studies at the University of Toronto and studies the land management of Al Jazeera.

[Alan Kasuja]

The Jazida Scheme is in and of.

[Professor Nizreen El Amin]

Itself a really kind of unique place.

[Interviewer/Host]

Right.

[Professor Nizreen El Amin]

It's one of the largest irrigation schemes in the world. I think at some point it was the largest centrally managed state run irrigation scheme in the world. And so we're looking at about 2 million acres of land that are utilizing water from the Blue Nile.

[Interviewer/Host]

Right?

[Professor Nizreen El Amin]

The Jazida Scheme was established in 1925 by the British through the construction of the Sennaar Dam and the clay soils.

[Alan Kasuja]

Of that kind of delta.

[Interviewer/Host]

Right.

[Professor Nizreen El Amin]

Because it's sort of nestled between the White and the Blue Niles just south of Khartoum slope away from the Blue Nile, allowing for kind of irrigation by gravity.

[Alan Kasuja]

And so there's a vast kind of.

[Professor Nizreen El Amin]

Grid of irrigation canals that flow away from the main canals onto people's fields. And the Jazida farmer is essentially a tenant farmer who leases the land from the state. There's lots of private Landowners, but they themselves lease the land to the state that then gets leased to the Jazeera farmer. The plots historically have been a little bit large for families to farm on their own, and so people utilize agricultural labor from other parts of the country, but also from communities that have been there really, since the late 1800s that are originally from Nigeria, who then. Nigeria, yes, from northern Nigeria, Yeah. Fulani communities, essentially.

[Alan Kasuja]

Really? Yeah, yeah, they were.

[BBC Host]

That's fascinating.

[Professor Nizreen El Amin]

Or recruited by the British to kind of labor on the.

[Alan Kasuja]

On the Dazita scheme at the time.

[Professor Nizreen El Amin]

And they've, you know, stayed there ever since. They're Sudanese. They're a very integral part of the.

[Alan Kasuja]

Sort of societal fabric of.

[BBC Host]

Of the Desidera as far as providing food or ensuring that Sudan is food secure. How important is Jazeera?

[Professor Nizreen El Amin]

It's extremely important. I mean, it, you know, in its heyday in the 1970s, I think, produced.

[Alan Kasuja]

About half of the agricultural output of.

[Professor Nizreen El Amin]

The country, and, you know, I think contributed about 30% of the country's GDP. It has immense potential that has actually never been fully kind of utilized, if you will. I think only 40% of it has been. So, yeah, there's immense potential, I think, partly because of the abundance of water.

[Interviewer/Host]

Right.

[Professor Nizreen El Amin]

And fertile soil. And, you know, the British picked it for a reason. They basically used it at the time to extract.

[Alan Kasuja]

To produce cotton, to kind of extract cotton for their empire.

[Professor Nizreen El Amin]

And then post independence, there was an extension that was built in the 1960s to include the managing scheme. And so, again, we're looking at sort of 2 million acres of arable land that could easily feed the entire country, if not the region. In fact, in the 1980s, 70s and.

[Alan Kasuja]

80S, it was sort of touted the.

[Professor Nizreen El Amin]

Breadbasket of the Middle east because of its potential to feed more than just the country itself. And so there was an inflow of sort of Gulf investment into mechanized farming.

[Alan Kasuja]

To tap that potential.

[BBC Host]

I wonder what the land ownership is like in a situation like that, where it just feels like there is this very arable land. There is a lot of people coming from all over the place, including the Gulf states, from what you're saying. And the ownership people must be really, really keen to grab a piece of that land.

[Professor Nizreen El Amin]

Yes, and it's actually quite. It's been quite complicated. It's been difficult for investors to acquire land in the Jazeera because during the British colonial period, the land was registered in a fairly unique way in that, as I mentioned, there's private ownership of the land, so it's very hard to dispossess People of that land, unlike parts.

[Alan Kasuja]

Of the Jazeera that are not part.

[Professor Nizreen El Amin]

Of the scheme where I do my.

[Alan Kasuja]

Research, sort of on the other side.

[Professor Nizreen El Amin]

Of the Blue Nile, where most of the land is communally owned and is, it's, it's mostly used for rain fed farming. So in those parts of the country, it's been much easier for the state to use something called the Unregistered Land Act. And these are essentially a set of land laws that were inherited that we inherited from, from our British colonizers that allow the state to grab land that is considered unused, unproductive, etc.

[Alan Kasuja]

Which of course we know that when the state says something is unused or unproductive, it often overlooks the fact that herders are using the land, that people.

[Professor Nizreen El Amin]

Are using the land for rain fed.

[Alan Kasuja]

Farming in sort of communal ways. And so in those parts of the.

[Professor Nizreen El Amin]

Jazeera where land is not registered in.

[Alan Kasuja]

The way it has been in the scheme, the state has been successful in dispossessing people of their land and in handing it over to foreign investors. I look at a farm just across.

[Professor Nizreen El Amin]

The river on the Blue Nile side.

[Alan Kasuja]

On the other side of the Jazeera, where an Emirati investor grabbed a very large piece of land and has been.

[Professor Nizreen El Amin]

Growing until, well, until recently the farm.

[Alan Kasuja]

Has shut down, but was growing alfalfa and rodis animal feed to sort of boost the dairy industry in the Gulf.

[BBC Host]

Animal feed instead of food that can be eaten by people. And I wonder what else grows in the Jazira region.

[Alan Kasuja]

So, you know, historically it's been a place where cash crops have been grown, right?

[Professor Nizreen El Amin]

So cotton, wheat, sorghum, ground nuts, sort of on a rotational schedule. That changed in 2005 with a law that sort of accelerated the privatization of the scheme where farmers were given the choice to kind of grow more or less what they wanted.

[Alan Kasuja]

But of course, cash crops have sort.

[Professor Nizreen El Amin]

Of been the cornerstone of the scheme.

[Alan Kasuja]

And as we know, cotton and even wheat is not necessarily the most suitable for the ecology of the region. And so it's also been quite draining, if you will, Ecologically, it hasn't been necessarily the best, you know, environmentally for, for the region.

[Professor Nizreen El Amin]

And so people for that reason and.

[Alan Kasuja]

Others decided to kind of shift their crops to more subsistence crops. But there is a push in general over the last maybe 10 years or so to really produce, you know, animal feed, because the Gulf has been one of the biggest purchasers to boost their dairy and meat industry.

[BBC Host]

So we've learned that the Jezero scheme was set up to grow cash Crops like cotton and wheat. And Professor Elamin tells us that global market forces have seen foreign investors starting to grow animal feed on it. Yet it could feed the entire nation of Sudan if properly invested in, which is a terrible irony when half the population of 48 million people don't have enough food at the moment due to the war.

[Alan Kasuja]

How come we are facing the these catastrophic levels of hunger when we could easily feed ourselves? And I think the answer is that this famine has been decades in the making, if you will.

[Interviewer/Host]

Right?

[Alan Kasuja]

And I think to me, I put the kind of starting date in the 90s when the Bashir regime started to essentially privatize the agricultural sector, withdrawing many of its agricultural extension services and sort of leaving farmers to fend for themselves. And in the Jazeera, this had a particularly negative impacts because you have a.

[Professor Nizreen El Amin]

Large state run irrigation scheme that requires.

[Alan Kasuja]

Engineers and people to clean the, you know, hundreds and thousands of canals, right? There's about 100 main canals and then maybe 1500 sort of smaller canals that lead into people's individual plots and those need to be regularly cleaned and maintained. And so at its height, I think in the 80s, the staff, the sort of technical staff, professional staff of the scheme, there were maybe about 10,000 people running it and supporting farmers. And by, you know, the early 2000s, there are about maybe 100 left or so. And so that had a huge impact. Private banks started providing loans when before the state was providing interest free loans to farmers. And so you had this kind of shift towards privatization and it really benefited wealthier farmers. But the average dazeeda farmer for the most part really suffered under these privatization policies. And in 2005, a law was passed that kind of accelerated this privatization process. So they created these water user associations and really started kind of telling the farmer, you know, you need to take care of cleaning the canals and managing sort of all aspects of what it takes to farm that were previously managed by professionals, by other people, right, that the state had provided and had laid off essentially. And so I think that was one of the key moments when a lot of people started to go into debt and people started to abandon farming for brick making, for example, or other kinds of informal work. And it really was, I think, the beginning of the end, if you will. The Jazeera scheme became one of the most inefficient irrigation schemes in the world during that time. And I should say that these policies were recommended by the World bank in order to sort of essentially shrink the state, if you will. And it was really devastating for farmers to this day the canals are in very bad shape and people are having a hard time getting water onto their fields.

[BBC Host]

You're listening to the Africa Daily Podcast from the BBC World Service with me, Alan Kasuja. Now, until January this year, the Rapid Support Forces militia known as the RSF controlled El Jazeera state. And Professor Nizreen El Amin says their occupation saw hundreds of thousands of civilians leave for safer areas of the country.

[Professor Nizreen El Amin]

It's a really devastating story and a.

[Alan Kasuja]

Lot of my relatives actually left during that time as well. I mean, essentially when the RSF besieged the Jazida, right, in December of 2023, they committed massacres across especially the eastern, southern and eastern part of the Jazeera. They looted grain storage facilities, they destroyed a lot of the key agricultural infrastructure, including some of the canals in the region. One of the statistics I recently heard is that they looted 60% of the 11 million livestock in the Jazeera.

[Interviewer/Host]

Right.

[Alan Kasuja]

Livestock are often used by families to kind of supplement their income and also their diets. And so that was also really devastating. And of course, you know, sexual violence was used as a weapon of war. Many, many people fled. In the eastern part of the Jazeera. I think the estimate is that about 70% of farmers were displaced. And so now a lot of people, ever since the army has kind of retaken at least large parts of the Jazeera, people are returning cautiously, at least. I know, you know, some farmers that I've been in contact with who have left their families in kind of IDP camps around Kassala and Gadaref and are coming back their villages. And of course they're not unfortunately starting from where they left off.

[Interviewer/Host]

Right.

[Alan Kasuja]

They're coming back to houses that have been destroyed.

[Interviewer/Host]

Right.

[Alan Kasuja]

Agricultural infrastructure that has been destroyed. No electricity, no water. They launched a we must plant campaign where They've already helped 530 rural families start to plant vegetable seeds and kind of subsistence crops in their compounds.

[Interviewer/Host]

Right.

[Alan Kasuja]

Because it's of course safer to be planting within kind of walled in compound and out in the field where they might encounter the RSF or other kind of armed groups. And so that's been quite successful. They now need support to clean some of the larger canals in order for water to be able to reach their villages. And yeah, and so I think there is there an opportunity to really invest in a kind of people farmer centered solution to the current hunger crisis and to utilize the potential of the Jazira to feed not only the families that are returning, but also displaced people beyond the region.

[BBC Host]

Right. And why would Jazira be strategically important to both RSF and the army?

[Alan Kasuja]

Well, I mean, it is sort of the backbone of the agricultural economy, if you will.

[Interviewer/Host]

Right.

[Alan Kasuja]

There's lots of other places in the country that have a lot of agricultural potential. Gadaref is often known as the breadbasket of Sudan because of the wheat and sesame and so forth that is produced there.

[BBC Host]

But does it mean, though, that controlling Jazira means. What does it mean controlling food? What does it mean? Or does it also mean that it caters or takes care of the interests of other forces beyond Sudan, you know, whoever else might be involved in this war in some sort of proxy capacity?

[Interviewer/Host]

Yes.

[Alan Kasuja]

No, that's a very good question. I mean, I remember when I first started my research in the Jazeera looking at Saudi and Emirati investments in the region. I remember that those external investors were particularly interested in the Jazida scheme, but because of the organizing of the farmers alliance of other kind of farmers unions, they were unable to kind of get a hold of that land.

[Interviewer/Host]

Right.

[Alan Kasuja]

And instead the state then gave them land in other parts of the country, notably the north and eastern part of the country. But, you know, they're still vying for that land because, again, of its strategic location between. Between the White and the Blue Nile and its proximity to Khartoum and because of this sort of irrigation by gravity, that is quite unique.

[Interviewer/Host]

Right.

[Alan Kasuja]

And so, you know, I think whoever gets a hold of the Jazeera is essentially sitting on a gold mine, if you will. You know, we talk often about the ways that gold is fueling this war, in particular the ways that the UAE is extracting Sudanese gold in exchange for weapons to the rsf. But livestock and land is another major kind of resource, if you will. And so I do think that, you know, particularly the uae, but also Saudi Arabia and other states are interested in this land, but they haven't been able to figure out how to dispossess people of the land, in particular, because of the unique land tenure system that I described earlier, where the Jazida scheme is one of the few places where agricultural land is privately owned, which is why it's particularly important for us to support people in going back. It is now safer to return, thankfully. Hopefully it will remain this way. But for them to, you know, to go back to farming crops like sorghum, for example, that have long been the kind of staple food crop that has sustained rural households for generations, if anything, what we are witnessing in Sudan right now should give us hope that the civilian population is very capable of running the country in the absence of a civilian state and international aid community. With the right kind of support, we can rebuild Sudan and this famine and hunger crisis can be addressed.

[BBC Host]

Africa Deal is a BBC World Service production. This episode was produced by Sharon Hemans and David Whitty. Our editors are Maileen de Zachiri and Simon Peeks. Remember to listen now to our sister podcast, Focus on Africa. Three stories every afternoon from the continent. And if you have thoughts on today's podcast, you can email us africadailybc.co.uk or just come to X. You'll find me there. My handleasuja and and that's with two Js. Thank you for listening.

[Professor Nizreen El Amin]

Sam.