Huzaifa Youssef was supposed to continue his studies in India, but the war in Sudan charted another path for him, as the young man is now participating in the date harvest in his hometown, while farmers fear that they will be unable to market their production, according to a report prepared by Agence France-Presse.
In the town of Karima, located 350 kilometers north of Khartoum, thousands of palm trees are spread out, planted at an equal distance, on lands dotted with water tanks.
People collect dates at the beginning of the harvest season in Barkal, northern Sudan (AFP)
In Karima, as throughout northern Sudan, the date harvest season began in early September. But in other areas, such as Gedaref in the south, the lands remained fallow this year.
Al-Fateh Al-Badawi was able to harvest dates in Karima, but he is not confident in his ability to market them, as buyers are “cautious,” as he put it.
A man climbed a palm tree to pick bunches of dates at the beginning of the harvest season in Barkal, northern Sudan (AFP)
Next to him, a barefoot man equipped with only a rope jumps onto the stem of a palm tree and climbs up to cut bunches of dates. On the ground, in the shade of palm branches, men and boys sit on large white sheets and beat bunches of dates to harvest dates.
One of the largest date producers in the world
Among them is Hudhayfa Youssef, a 26-year-old radiologist who worked in Khartoum before he left to escape the war that broke out on April 15, and joins his family in the north, where he works as a date harvester to earn a little money.
Youssef told Agence France-Presse, “I was supposed to travel to India to obtain a master’s degree, but with the war, I had to change my plans.”
Dates constitute daily food in Sudan (AFP)
Sudan has been plunged into chaos since the outbreak of war between army commander Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy commander of the Rapid Support Forces, Lieutenant General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who are fighting for power. The battles left more than 7,500 dead, according to a count by the non-governmental organization “ACLAD,” while the United Nations confirms the displacement and asylum of more than five million Sudanese.
The war also caused what experts call “deindustrialization” in the country and negatively affected the agricultural sector, which contributes 40 percent of the gross domestic product and provides 80 percent of jobs in Sudan, according to the United Nations.
Sudan ranks seventh on the list of date producers in the world (AFP)
Dates constitute a daily food in Sudan, as in many Arab countries, and are vital to the economy. Sudan ranks seventh on the list of date producers in the world, providing 460,000 tons of dates every year, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
Across the country, farmers are unable to obtain financing, traders are unable to sell their goods to markets, and major agro-industrial companies have stopped operating.
In May, the Hajjar Agricultural Industries Group, the largest source of jobs in Sudan, announced the suspension of its activities and investments in the country.
Sudan provides 460 thousand tons of dates every year (AFP)
Those who continue to work face enormous challenges.
“Alternative markets”
Before the war, Khartoum was the center of trade. However, the battles changed the structure of the already weak economy and destroyed the capital, which represented Sudan’s economic lung.
Al-Badawi says, “We used to sell the bulk of our production in Khartoum because of its geographical proximity and because of the great demand there.” But with the war, this is no longer possible.” He added: “We are trying to find alternative markets.”
Another farmer, surgeon Ahmed Ali, believes that Sudanese state assistance is necessary “to obtain a good quality of production.”
A young man climbs the trunk of a palm tree to reach the date clusters (AFP)
The 45-year-old hopes that the authorities will invest “in a date preservation factory in Karima.”
However, the country, which has not paid employee salaries for five months, is finding it difficult to provide basic food to its population since Sudan lost its main suppliers of wheat due to the war between Russia and Ukraine.
In a country that before the war was among the poorest countries in the world, nearly six million Sudanese are “on the verge of famine,” according to what the United Nations has warned.
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2023-09-26 13:49:12
