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Poverty and agricultural development in Sudan, Dr. Raga M. Elzaki, Prof. Eltighani M. Elamin and Shams Eldien H. Ahmed

Raga M. Elzaki, Gezira University, Sudan
Eltighani M. Elamin, Agricultural Economic and Policy Research Center, Sudan
Shams Eldein H. Ahmed, Sudan University for Sciences and Technology, Sudan

Abstract: This study assesses the extent of poverty in rural Sudan. It is focusing on the indicators and identifying the causes of poverty, trends and tenable solutions by farming systems. Additionally it is drawing an optimal cropping pattern for rural poor households that have optimised resources and reduced poverty. An insightful analysis was performed to impute the poverty alleviation measures by individual crops and the levels of technology applied. The findings of this study indicate that the incidence of poverty was higher in traditional and mechanised farms when contrasted with those using irrigated farming technologies. The female-headed households are poorer compared to the male-headed households. The linear programming associated with the Policy Analysis Matrix (PAM) has explained that the misuse of resources and the lack of appropriate technologies were among the important factors that led to the low returns from farming and persistent poverty in the countryside. The PAM results also showed that the poor producers grow food crops only to maintain self-sufficiency and do not buy expensive food from the markets. Food crops have more comparative advantage in the investigated three farming systems. Accordingly, reversed credit policies that favour more subsistent farm households should be imperative for boosting production and reducing poverty in rural Sudan.
Keywords: Rural poverty; Farming systems; Farms; crops; PAM; Development

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