Poor rains hit farming in Kass, South Darfur

Poor rainfall in Kass, about 80km west of Nyala in Sudan’s South Darfur State, has led to a reduction in the area cultivated during the current agricultural season, local authorities said.

Hafiz al-Saleh, the executive director of Kass Locality, told Radio Tamazuj that the rainy season had started poorly.

He said farmers had continued cultivating their land despite the limited rainfall, but the area planted was now about 70% of last year’s level.

“To avert a food gap next year, we have invited the locality’s agriculture office and the Sudanese Agency for Relief and Humanitarian Operations to discuss ways of addressing the anticipated shortage of food grains,” al-Saleh said.

He said the authorities are also preparing a plan to reduce the impact of the poor rains ahead of the harvest.

Al-Salih said commodity prices in Kass are lower than in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur.

He attributed this to the locality’s position along the road linking Nyala with Zalingei and El Geneina and onward to Chad.

Kass is an important commercial centre, he said, with fertile farmland suitable for growing staple crops, as well as areas used for livestock grazing.

The locality also produces a range of fruits and vegetables and attracts pastoralists from other parts of the region, he added.

Al-Saleh said many essential commodities are brought into Kass from Chad, making the locality an important centre for regional trade.

The local official acknowledged that grain prices had risen recently but said they had fallen after the head of the South Darfur Civil Administration banned the movement of staple grains out of the state.

He said Kass supplies both South Darfur and neighbouring East Darfur with staple grains, including millet and sorghum.

Sudan has been at war since April 2023, when fighting broke out between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The RSF took control of Kass and the army’s 61st Infantry Brigade in 2023.

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