Sudan’s National Agriculture Investment Plan (SUDNAIP) 2016-2020.

This Sudan’s National Agriculture Investment Plan is a five-year multisectoral plan, which maps the investments needed to achieve the Sudan Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) target of 6% annual growth in Agriculture Domestic Product (GDP). The overall goal is to achieve an agricultural development that transforms the agricultural sector from a traditional subsistence into a modern sector that responds to market indicators and contributes strongly to reducing poverty, economic growth, and increasing foreign exchange earnings, in light of sustainable management of natural resources. Sudan will pursue this target by allocating a minimum of 10% of its budget to the agricultural sector. The SUDNAIP thus is a sector-wide plan for coordinating and harmonizing the resources needed to accelerate the implementation of existing initiatives and to launch new initiatives which address national and regional development priorities for sector development. To achieve the overall goal, the Plan sets up the following objectives (i) promotion of exports of crops and livestock with a view to safeguarding against the risks of a collapse of the whole economy as a result of neglect of the agricultural sector and distortions to agricultural incentives; (ii) increasing productivity and efficiency at the production and processing stages; (iii) realization of food security and nutrition; (iv) reducing rural poverty by 50% by 2020, generation of job opportunities, especially for youth and women, and increasing per capita income; (v) achievement of a regionally-balanced sector and economic growth in order to encourage settlement in the rural areas; and (vi) development and protection of natural resources to ensure its renewal and sustainability.
To help eliminate hunger and malnutrition, the Plan aims to mainstream food and nutrition security and safety including (i) creating an enabling environment to achieve sustainable agricultural development; and (ii) increasing the food availability, access and sustainability.
In order to make agriculture and forestry more productive and sustainable, the SUDNAIP envisages a number of programs to (i) increasing production and productivity through modernization of the agriculture systems; (ii) raising the efficiency of resource use in the agricultural sector; (iii) updating existing legislation related to agriculture, livestock and agro-industrialization and drafting new legislation aimed at developing, protecting natural resources and sustainable management of them; (iv) implementing comprehensive resource surveys and monitoring forest resources; (v) rehabilitating the irrigation infrastructure and providing modern equipment; (vi) encouraging the adoption of agroforestry by increasing in the number of forest trees on agricultural lands (5% of reserved forests); (vii) developing agricultural support services and establishing networks of agricultural knowledge and information in addition to strengthening infrastructure and promoting strategic partnerships; and (viii) rehabilitating and improving rangelands management.
More inclusive and efficient agricultural and food systems will be achieved through (i) enhancing production by support services and establishing knowledge and information network; (ii) developing marketing infrastructure to increase competitiveness and increase value-addition through agro-industrialization and value chain development; (iii) agricultural manufacturing, value chain development and agricultural marketing; (iv) improving rural infrastructure and trade-related capacity to access markets; (v) improving the links of the agricultural sector with a special focus on agro-based food industries and breeding to increasing the GDP and the development of animal industries that have a high added value; and (vi) establishing a robust marketing and market information system.
To increase the resilience of livelihoods to disasters, main interventions will be directed to (i) protect and conserve natural resources with a priority of addressing the agriculture land issue as a key factor in the natural resource management; (ii) combating desertification, controlling and stopping desert encroachment, stabilizing sand dunes, reducing erosion on the banks of the Nile, restoring desertified areas and their habit of the production department and protecting agricultural lands; and (iii) promote the sustainable management of parks and wildlife resources.
As for Governance, the concerned institutions shall (i) create an enabling policy and a legal environment for sustained agriculture growth; (ii) promote their reform and increase capacities of staff and producers in the agricultural sector; (iii) develop and reform policies that guide the production and marketing plans of producers and investors; and (iv) promote change in management and capacity building of producers and agricultural cadres.