In a press statement on Thursday, the head of the rainy-season cultivation farmers’ committee of Sudan’s Sennar state, Salah Ahmed, has said that the state’s farmers are boycotting the current cultivation season.

The boycott is in protest against the Governor’s policies that he alleged to be “intended to compel farmers into compliance with a ‘deduction and gapping’ decision by confiscating fuel and blocking agricultural financing by banks”.

Ahmed explained that the farmers reject a decision by the state governor Ahmed Abbas “to deduct and relegate 10 per cent of the total area of the rainy-season agricultural projects in order to open paths for nomads and the settlement of the transients from South Sudan”.

Ahmed explained that several committees have been convened, but all failed to find an amicable solution to the problem, “due to the unwillingness of the State governor and Minister of Agriculture to discuss the matter with them”.

“The decision will not discourage farmers from defending their land,” Ahmed asserts. “Producers, investors and owners of livestock who make up an estimated 86 per cent of the state’s population, reject the government decision.”

He noted that the farmers “have no problems with the government proposal to open paths with the neighbouring states such as Blue Nile – Gedaref”.

Salah appealed to the President of the Republic of Sudan, Omar Al Bashir to intervene and resolve the crisis before the condition becomes exacerbated and extended to other areas.

The deputy chairperson of the Sudan Farmers Association, Kamal Adam noted that they have intervened in the crisis as a Union of Sudanese Farmers, but the issue is not yet resolved. He warning of the failure of the agricultural season and the fragmentation of the social fabric of the state.

File photo: Nomads in Sennar state