Farmers in Sudan struggle to sustain wheat production amid ongoing conflict

Sudan’s farmers are grappling with several obstacles to wheat production, with power outages, damaged infrastructure, and conflict-related destruction intensifying amid clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). For two decades, Siddig Ahmed has cultivated wheat in Northern State, but he says that persistent power shortages are now making irrigation an arduous challenge. “We privately imported the seeds and fertilizers, but our crops are now thirsty because of the power shortages following the attacks by the RSF. We lost our fava bean crop and now wheat is under threat if the power shortage persists. This is a real crisis,” said Ahmed. In 2024, a joint initiative between the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the African Development Bank (AfDB) led to a 70 percent increase in wheat production across five Sudanese states. However, continued fighting threatens to reverse these gains, raising concerns about a sharp ...