Agriculture

The Nile flows through Sudan for approximately 1,900 kilometres. The Blue Nile descends from the Ethiopian highlands through Sennar and Kosti. The White Nile flows from Uganda through South Sudan and Malakal. They join at Khartoum. The combined river then flows north through Sudan’s dry core, past the ancient cataracts, through the Nubian Desert, and into Egypt. By volume, more than 80 percent of the Nile’s water originates in Sudan’s catchment — the Ethiopian highlands via the Blue Nile and Atbara — before flowing through or past Sudan entirely. ...

In 1925, a single canal changed the history of central Sudan. The Sennar Dam on the Blue Nile and the network of irrigation channels it fed transformed the Gezira Plain — a flat, semi-arid expanse between the Blue and White Niles — into one of Africa’s most productive agricultural zones. At its peak, the Gezira Scheme irrigated over 880,000 hectares of cotton, sorghum, and wheat, generating a third of Sudan’s export revenues and employing hundreds of thousands of families. The concept was simple: bring water to flat land that already had soil. ...

There is a development intervention so well-proven, so cost-effective, and so politically straightforward that it is almost surprising more countries have not made it a universal right. It is not a new technology or a complex financial instrument. It is a meal — a hot lunch, served at school, every day. School feeding programmes are among the most extensively studied policies in development economics. The evidence is unambiguous: they increase school enrollment, reduce dropout rates, improve learning outcomes, and disproportionately benefit girls. When designed well — with food sourced from local farmers — they also serve as agricultural subsidy programmes, injecting cash into rural economies while feeding children in urban and peri-urban schools. The return on investment, according to multiple World Food Programme analyses, averages nine dollars for every one dollar spent. ...

Published June 9, 2025 — the most current economic assessment of Sudan from the World Bank. Almost two years into the conflict that erupted in April 2023, Sudan is trapped in a deepening crisis. Key Numbers Indicator Figure GDP contraction 2023 −29.4% (one of the steepest in modern history) GDP contraction 2024 −13.5% Extreme poverty (< $2.15/day) 33% (2022) → 71% (2024) Unemployment 32% (2022) → 47% (2024) Inflation 2024 170% year-on-year Forcibly displaced 12.9 million — the world’s largest displacement crisis Return to pre-conflict GDP Not before 2031, even with rapid peace What the Report Recommends The report’s recovery framework rests on three pillars: ...

In 1946, the British colonial administration commissioned a study of Sudan’s agricultural potential. The findings were unambiguous: Sudan possessed more cultivable land than any country in Africa, fed by the Nile and its tributaries, with a climate capable of producing cotton, sorghum, sesame, groundnuts, gum arabic, fruits, and vegetables at commercial scale. The report concluded that Sudan could, with proper investment, feed not just its own population but much of the African continent and the Arab world. ...

World Bank · 2015 · 226 pages The most important economic document in the Kandaka library. Written at the moment Sudan hit rock bottom — 75% of fiscal revenue gone with South Sudan, the Gezira Scheme in collapse, gold and gum arabic the only remaining export earners — it is the most comprehensive and actionable analysis of Sudan’s economic predicament and potential. Core Finding A 2% annual increase in crop agriculture productivity would: ...