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amelioration strategies/costs; the true costs to pump irrigation water either from the river or from depth underground; outdated tillage practices; poor crop selection; a lack of suitable crop rotations; and the absence of capable hands-on management were all factors to take into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