{"id":175841,"date":"2018-08-27T16:19:00","date_gmt":"2018-08-27T16:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dabangasudan.preview.websight.nl\/small-farmers-hard-hit-by-fuel-crisis-in-sudan\/"},"modified":"2018-08-27T16:19:00","modified_gmt":"2018-08-27T16:19:00","slug":"small-farmers-hard-hit-by-fuel-crisis-in-sudan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dabangasudan.org\/en\/all-news\/article\/small-farmers-hard-hit-by-fuel-crisis-in-sudan","title":{"rendered":"Small farmers hard hit by fuel crisis in Sudan"},"content":{"rendered":"

A number of farmers in Sudan have reported the continuation of diesel crisis and pointed out that only half of their quota has been received, while a large number of small farmers have not received their quota at all.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A farmer from El Gedaref state said they had received only about 60 per cent of the diesel allocated for agriculture so far – up slightly from the 50 per cent reported at the beginning of August<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A farmer in Blue Nile state also reported receiving only half of his quota, while a large number of farmers, especially small farmers, have been deprived of their quota altogether.<\/p>\n

Repeated warnings<\/strong><\/p>\n

In July, Radio Dabanga reported the repeated warnings of small farmers in El Gedaref state<\/a> of a failure of the cultivation of sesame and millet in the current season, pointing to a lack of diesel and high production costs. There are reports of the security service targeting small farmers by confiscating their quantities of fuel.<\/p>\n

Several farmers from various localities in the eastern Sudanese state told this station that the cost of ploughing five feddans<\/em> has risen during one week from SDG600 to SDG800 (*$28.40). One feddan <\/em>is equivalent to 1.038 acres or 0.42 hectares.<\/p>\n

Farmers reported there is a lack of fuel which has caused the price of a barrel of diesel in the black market to rise to SDG8,000 ($284.20), while the price of a litre of pesticide has risen to SDG350 ($12.43).<\/p>\n

In addition, farmers reported a rise in labour prices. A farmer explained that Ethiopian workers have been reluctant to work on their farms this season because of the deterioration of the Sudanese Pound and the general price hikes in Sudan.<\/p>\n

Chronic fuel crisis<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sudan has suffered from a scarcity of fuel and cooking gas and flour crises last year, including in December<\/a>. In March 2018 however, the crises extended and became acute.<\/p>\n

* Based on the indicative US Dollar rate quoted by the Central Bank of Sudan (CBoS)<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n