Towards A Feasible Agricultural Policy Reform in Sudan: PPP as an Alternative Approach

Abstract

As it is well known, Sudan is an agricultural country receiving more than 80% of its Gross Domestic Product from exporting raw agricultural commodities. More than 70% of its working force were farmers relying in earning their living on agriculture. The country has been endowed with plenty of natural and human resources.  Major among these resources is the abundant fertile vast land area, with plenty of water sources such as the River Nile and other rivers and water sources.  In this paper we intended to investigate, why, despite all these endowments, the Sudanese economy achieved very little revenue from selling raw agricultural products due to the poor productivity of the vast cultivated land area. During the last thirty years, the Sudanese economy has undergone a drastic change. Instead of been an agriculture-based economy it has turned into an oil-dependent economy which in turn has marginalized agriculture. At a time when the world is suffering a food crisis, which is especially afflicting Africa, food production should offer the main productive future for the Sudanese economy.

In this paper we investigated the need to go back and invest in the agricultural sector, where, 75% of the country’s fertile land has been calling for utilization. However, in the light of the fact that, the private sector with all its financial abilities and know-how has been all the way out of the government plans, it may be time has come to reform agricultural policies. In this paper, we proposed a new relation of partnership where the private sector’s facilitates would be mobilizes jointly with the government expertize to improve agricultural sector’s policies. public-private sectors’ efforts would be earmarked to improve productivity and production including the agro- industrialization process to enhance economic value added of Sudanese agricultural commodities. During the harvest of the year 2017, many farmers including private sector companies and foreign farmers, registered a new record productivity level reaching up to 30 Kg per Fadden in some regions of the country such as Kordofan, Northern region, White Nile, Gedaref, and Gezira regions, through personal or group initiatives. The standard productivity per Fadden in growing any cash crop in any of these regions used to be ranging between 4-7 Kg per Fadden.Our findings, suggested alternative scenarios, and policy recommendations towards achieving successful agro-industrialization based on improved use of advanced technology and modern marketing method has been provided at the end of the study.

Keywords: public-private sectors’ relationship, Sudan government, productivity, Agricultural commodities, Exports. Agro- industrialization.