Khartoum State, Sudan

Regional Productivity Forerunner

Peter led a team of local and international specialists to rehabilitate a failed irrigation scheme in Sudan, comprising 7500 hectares of land and a 1.5 million cubic metres per day pump-station adjacent to the Blue Nile River. To ensure a successful outcome for the project, comprehensive assessments were made, including complete detailed soil survey, GPS-based topographic survey, proposed project layout, existing river pumps refurbishment, project infrastructure design detailed bills of quantity, climatic data analysis, assessment of local and regional market opportunities, and in-depth financial analyses.

Based on the resulting business plan Peter proceeded to manage its implementation and operations, beginning with the installation of 75 centre-pivots and three lateral-move irrigation systems, along with all associated pumping and pipework infrastructure, and operation of a sophisticated farming equipment fleet. Production focused on alfalfa (lucerne) green-chop and hay, plus maize silage and grain sorghum supplied to the nearby large-scale intensive dairy (milking 1500 cows year-round); alfalfa hay for export to the Gulf region; and wheat supplied to a commercial milling venture in Khartoum.

Challenges Resolved

Highly sodic soils are not productive.

Highly sodic soils dominate the eastern bank of the Blue Nile River and gypsum application was not cost-effective in Sudan. An alternative solution had to be adopted to overcome these challenges based on locally available composted poultry manure applied at high rates to fields growing mixed-species green-manure cover-crops.

The Sudanese landscape is characterised by many failed and underperforming agri-ventures.

Significant time was allocated at the outset to study the underlying reasons for this pattern. The adage, “repeating the same old mistakes” springs readily to mind when assessing the circumstances under which agri-ventures struggled. What we discovered was that the repeated failure to understand soil and/or topography constraints, and essential amelioration strategies/costs; the true costs to pump irrigation water either from the river or from depth underground; outdated tillage practices; poor crop selection; a lack of suitable crop rotations; and the absence of capable hands-on management were all factors to take into consideration

More than a decade later this large-scale farm continues to operate successfully, even in the face of the prevailing difficult political economy for much of this period in Sudan. Since its success, other irrigation farms adjacent to Al-Waha have begun as seen on recent satellite images, further indication of reap‘s ability to be a forerunner and positively impact regional productivity.