SUDAN NEWS ALERT: AFP – Sudan wheat harvest waits to rot as hunger crisis looms

19/6/2022: AFP – Sudan wheat harvest waits to rot as hunger crisis looms

Amid Sudan’s acute food insecurity, AFP report that Sudanese farmers fear that their wheat harvest will rot in the absence of buyers, with agricultural expert Abdulkarim Omar noting that wheat can rot within three months if stored inadequately.

Thousands of farmers cultivated wheat as part of Sudan’s Al-Gezira agricultural scheme after the government promised to buy it at $75 per sack, with a farmer telling AFP that they did not need adequate storage places because the government bought their entire harvest.

However, Sudan’s agricultural bank – which buys the harvests - has been unable to receive money from the finance ministry or central bank owing to a worsening economic crisis after the October military coup.

Traders have offered to buy the wheat at prices that barely cover production costs leaving farmers will little incentive to cultivate wheat, notes Omar Marzouk, the governor of the Al-Gezira scheme.