Sudan: Controversy over cultivation limits in Sennar

Farmers are at odds with local authorities in Sudan’s Sennar state after a decision to reduce the amount of farmlands under cultivation this year by 10%.

Farmers are at odds with local authorities in Sudan’s Sennar state after a decision to reduce the amount of farmlands under cultivation this year by 10%.

The Sennar government issued a decision to reduce farmlands by 10% for all the irrigated projects in the state. The measure was explained as a means of opening up more grazing corridors for herders in the state.

For their part, a farmers’ committee in the state expressed outrage about the decision taken by the state government and demonstrated at the the Ministry of Agriculture.

In an interview with Radio Tamazuj yesterday, the deputy chairman of farmers committee Abulazeem Ahmed Al Fekki said the committee strongly rejected the reduction of their farmlands.

He noted they already filed a case against the decision to the court to repeal the decision, saying the government intends to give their farmlands to foreign investors.

“We will not accept the decision of deduction by 10% to dislodge the farmers – we know the hidden agenda of the government very well,” he emphasized.

He accused the state government of obstructing the agriculture season this year by imposing such a decision on the farmers.

“The government is extorting the farmers to accept the decision,” he further claimed, saying that farmers who do not accept the decision will not have their contracts renewed so that he can receive a license and obtain fuel at the beginning of the planting season. 

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