Background

The Northern Region of Sudan comprises River Nile State and Northern State, which together include over 1000 km of the River Nile Valley from Khartoum to the Egyptian border, as well as large tracts of desert and semi-desert hinterland. Northern Sudan is considered as one of the poorest regions in the country. The development is considered by serious limitations on the two basic resources: land and water.

Mean annual rainfall ranges from 150 mm in the south to almost zero in the north, and, apart from some nomadism, all agriculture depends on irrigation in valley areas close to the rivers. Agricultural operations are determined as much by the river regimes as by the meteorological seasons. The main supply of water is from irrigation canals carrying water pumped from the Nile and Atbara Rivers.

The project therefore proposes to address the issue of water-use efficiency to enhance more reliable incomes for producers.

At this stage, the structure proposed for the project includes only the planning phase which will seek to clarify that context (farmer perspectives of current farming systems and their constraints, policy environment; and farm-level monitoring).

Objectives

The overall objective of the project is to alleviate poverty by increasing agricultural productivity through increasing the productivity of irrigation water.

• i. Strengthen the capacity of ARTC in socio-economic research and its integration with technical agricultural research
• ii. Identify intervention options that will assist farmers to increase their production and improve their family income through more efficient use of water resources.
• iii. Assess the current water productivity in irrigated areas for various sites with the objective of improving water productivity.
• iv. Evaluate the water use efficiency at farmers fields using the developed methodologies of ICARDA for evaluating such index and which were applied in Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Iraq.
• v. Develop recommendations to improve water productivity.

Site Selection

Selected sites are;

• - Riverian lands which comprise the narrow strip of land (jerf) on either river bank, as well as islands in the river, liable to be covered by the annual flood.
• - Middle terrace lands, which comprise flat areas of varying width, close to the river but not normally inundated by the annual flood.
• - High terrace lands, which comprise very gentle slopes rising above the middle terrace, with little or no natural vegetation and high exposure to wind and sand movement.

Methodology

Two phases are proposed for project execution, namely:

• i. A planning phase consisting of information gathering, rapid rural appraisal and structured survey, to analyze and assess the current situation fully to be compared with the situation after the adoption of recommendations generated in the similar sites of Egypt.
• ii. Implementation phase consisting of adaptive research

Activity

• i. A planning workshop that involves anticipated partners (researchers, policy makers, community leaders, pump-scheme managers, farmers, and commercial entrepreneurs).
• ii. Study the project target area and make a through analysis of technical, social, economic and policy factors that affected water productivity, farmer investment and the sustainability of farming systems,
• iii. A programme of adaptive research on representative farms in the area to monitor farmers participation in the research on water-saving and water-use efficiency trials (comparing alternative irrigation regimes) on specific crops (e.g. wheat, faba bean), set up on research station to evaluate the benefit accrued to the adoption of recommendations related to water productivity.

Outputs

• i. To arrive at intensive, water –use efficient, economically viable agricultural systems that lead to better management of the natural resources.
• ii. Create farmers awareness of strategies and economic options for more profitable recommendations on water productivity, thereby increasing farm income in a sustainable manner.
• iii. Create policy maker awareness of the resource management dimension in respect of both efficiency and sustainability of utilization. This process will assist in the establishment of a framework for improving irrigation water productivity.

Time Frame - Sudan.pdf