Africa: A Century of Agricultural Investment in Sudan - Why Has Development Failed?

What the report says

In an opinion piece published by African Arguments and carried by AllAfrica on 11 August 2026, Hassan Ali Sanhori argues that Sudan’s long record of agricultural investment has not delivered the broad development often promised by policymakers. The article says Sudan has long been described as highly suited to farming because of its land, climate, water resources and livestock, yet rural poverty, weak services and repeated conflict have persisted.

The author traces the problem to investment patterns that began with major irrigation projects such as Gezira in the 1920s and later expanded through schemes including New Halfa, Rahad and Suki, as well as mechanized rain-fed farming and donor-backed programs after independence. He argues that these efforts were judged mainly by output, cultivated area and exports, rather than by whether they reduced marginalization, built local institutions or improved rural livelihoods.

The piece says the biggest share of public financing and research support has gone to large irrigated schemes in central Sudan, while rain-fed farming in places such as Darfur, Kordofan, Blue Nile and eastern Sudan was largely neglected. It also says mechanized expansion has encroached on forests, grazing land and pastoral routes, while livestock investment remained limited. The author links these trends to inequality, food insecurity, environmental damage, displacement and conflict.

As background, the article’s argument reflects a broader debate in development studies about whether large-scale agricultural growth can promote stability if benefits are unevenly distributed. The piece presents Sudan’s war, which began on 15 April 2023, as exposing long-standing weaknesses in that model rather than as the sole cause of them.