[{"bbox": [96, 152, 1135, 207], "category": "Text", "text": "leave Sudan with around a 2.5-million-tonne cereal supply gap for the consumption year, January to December 2022. Of particular concern is the deficit in wheat, with the import requirement estimated at 1.7 million tonnes."}, {"bbox": [96, 219, 1136, 676], "category": "Text", "text": "At the same time, smallholder farmers experience constraints in terms of access to land and land tenure security. Sudan's land tenure system is a major challenge for agriculture production and investment. Customary land tenure is the dominant tenure system for agricultural lands in Sudan, most particularly in the Darfur region. The customary land tenure system is not legally recognized by the Constitution. Customary rights are usually not registered, and the rights of holders are recognized only by the native administration under which the plot is located. Women have less access to land than men for a variety of legal and cultural reasons. Without secure title to land, women are often denied membership in cooperatives and other rural organizations and thus to the benefits of this membership. They also lack collateral which is generally indispensable for access to credit. A direct consequence of women's lack of access to land and membership in rural organizations is their lack of access to credit. Land is usually required as collateral for loans, on the one hand, and, on the other, credit schemes are often channeled through rural organizations to their members. This is a serious obstacle to improving women's agricultural productivity, as without credit women farmers are unable to buy inputs such as seeds, fertilizers, and improved technologies, or to hire labor.⁷ All unregistered lands are under usufructuary right and can be dispossessed without compensation at any time by the government. Uncertainties of conflict related displacements in rural areas and urban expansion to agricultural lands continue to dispossess customarily owned land rights causing a vicious cycle of violent conflicts and impoverishment of rural farmers. Unclear land rights give rise to contention and dissent among rural communities, most prominently between agriculturalists and pastoralists."}, {"bbox": [96, 687, 1135, 848], "category": "Text", "text": "Livestock production continues to be an important source of food and income for a large proportion of the country's population. Livestock is raised mostly by nomadic or semi-nomadic pastoralists who engage in transhumance movements both within the Sudan and to neighboring countries. The livestock sector is characterized by the prevalence of epidemic diseases. Lack of veterinary services and drugs at the community level, weak disease surveillance/reporting systems, limited practices to improve local breeds, as well as lack of livestock vaccination campaigns are factors affecting livestock health and production."}, {"bbox": [96, 859, 1135, 993], "category": "Text", "text": "Sudan is also among the countries' most affected by climate change. Poor techniques have increased desertification and land degradation. Climate change is evidenced by recurrent weather events, reduced rainfall and desertification, the Sahara desert is advancing at a rate of about 1.5 km/year (WB, 2013). Most of Sudan's remaining semi-arid and low rainfall savannah, representing approximately 25 per cent of the country's agricultural land, is at significant risk of further degradation, according to a study by Göteborg University in Sweden (Dahlberg"}, {"bbox": [96, 1004, 1135, 1218], "category": "Text", "text": "and Slunge 2007). It predicts that the desert boundary will continue to shift southwards due to climate change and changing rainfall patterns, leading to an estimated 20 per cent drop in food production. Land degradation and the decline in soil fertility can be mainly attributed to unsustainable soil preparation practices and absence of vegetative cover. In addition, biodiversity is seriously threatened. Forest cover has declined from more than 40 per cent of the country's land area in the 1950s to 27 per cent at the beginning of the millennium, to as little as 10.3 per cent by 2015. One major threat to biodiversity is the widespread, unchecked use of insecticides, herbicides and fungicides. Furthermore, agriculture and biodiversity in Sudan are threatened by several invasive species, which are replacing the native species or destroying their natural habitat."}, {"bbox": [96, 1229, 1135, 1468], "category": "Text", "text": "Climate change and poor livestock, farming and arboriculture techniques increased desertification, land degradation and inadequate supplies of potable water. New migration routes and settlements (IDPs) are clashing with local communities over access to natural resources causing additional conflicts between farmers and pastoralists. Population pressure due to high demographic growth (2.4% p.a.) and compounded by increased numbers of forced displacement (including refugees and IDPs) have encouraged destructive forms of agriculture. Since the beginning of the year, conflicts have led to 151,155 newly displaced while close to 80,000 people have been forcedly displaced between May and July 2022. Vulnerable host communities in areas of displacement and return where services are overstretched are equally impacted by new or secondary displacements. It is important for the present action to include areas with high presence of IDPs and refugees."}, {"bbox": [96, 1480, 1135, 1587], "category": "Text", "text": "Digital technology enables the smallholders to connect with institutions and information that eventually help in decreasing risk and uncertainty. Access to data and financial services with the help of specific digital technologies would improve the efficiency of fertilizing, planting, harvesting and selling products. At present, Sudan strategies do not prominently feature such types of technologies, however, there is an increase in the number of people"}, {"bbox": [85, 1621, 674, 1646], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁷ http://www.nzdl.org/cgi-bin/library. Rural Women and Food security"}, {"bbox": [1038, 1682, 1143, 1706], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 7 of 26"}]