Sudan: Gezira project, an agricultural project that the authorities want to raise from the ashes
Audio 02:16
Dockworkers in Port Sudan prepare bales of cotton for loading onto a ship for export, June 17, 2014. (Photo illustration) © AFP
By: Eliott Brachet
5 mins
At its peak in the 1970s, the Gezira project accounted for a third of Sudan's economy, producing hundreds of thousands of tonnes of high-quality cotton each year, exported across the globe.
Today, the largest irrigated agriculture project on the African continent has fallen into disrepair.
However, the new transitional authorities in Khartoum hope to raise the Gezira from its ashes.
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Saifeddine Ahmed is preparing to plant a few hectares of cotton.
He is worried because too little water is reaching his fields. “
The situation is very bad.
The water arrives late, the canals are blocked.
The government has promised to rehabilitate them, but for now it is empty talk.
I want the project to regain its place in the economy of Sudan.
The authorities must concentrate on irrigation, we have no alternative,
”he said.
In the Gezira, a huge network of irrigation canals that covers nearly a million hectares of fertile land, cotton has long been the main crop.
But today, this "white gold" no longer weighs at all in the country's economy, regrets Mohammed Abdallah.
This peasant denounces the mismanagement of the regime of Omar el-Bechir.
“
The regime allowed the peasants to plant whatever they wanted.
It had a negative effect on the project.
Diseases increased, the administration was decapitated and production declined.
The land became impoverished because it was continuously cultivated.
Before, the plots were left to rest for a year.
It's finish.
There is no more administration to organize all this
”.
In the middle of the fields, dilapidated houses once housed the agricultural engineers of Gezira.
In 30 years of dictatorship, nearly 12,000 project workers have been made redundant.
Today, the transitional authorities aim to revive cotton production.
“
The transitional government has made a commitment to financially support the project to get it back on track.
This is the first time that this has happened in 30 years.
We are talking about an investment of 8 million euros.
We will return to the cotton plantation.
We will start with 20,000 hectares.
We want to create added value, export cotton as finished products, not just raw material,
”explains Elsidieg Abasheera, the new director of the project.
More than 130,000 families still live from the Gezira project.
Many are waiting to see if the government's promises come true.
To rehabilitate the irrigation canals alone, it would take more than $ 750 million.
But for the moment, the state coffers are empty and foreign investments are long overdue.
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