Sudan's government interventions: a review article on how to overcome the gap between wheat production and consumption.

Abstract

Agriculture is considered the mainstay of Sudan's economy and the livelihood of the majority of the population. It has contributed an annual average of 32 % of GDP for the last 10 years. Wheat is a strategic and political crop in Sudan and has played a central role in the country’s economy during successive regimes. This review paper aims to highlight the status of wheat production and consumption in Sudan in line with government interventions in the local and imported wheat sectors over the past few decades to ensure adequate grain supplies for domestic consumption. The Sudan government's official national-level statistics data and the government policy documents related to wheat production and consumption are used to conduct this paper. Despite the agricultural potential and ingredients available in Sudan, as well as government interventions via policies and plans oriented towards achieving wheat self-sufficiency, domestic production does not meet the population's needs and only covers an average of domestic consumption, which does not exceed 24%. Therefore, the Sudanese government has been importing wheat to bridge this gap, which was a great burden on its budget previously, and from this year (2022), this will be a great burden on the Sudanese citizens as the government completely lifted subsidies for wheat imports. This situation, in line with the world prices of wheat, which have surged since February 2022 and reached an all-time high level not seen since 2008 as the Russian invasion of Ukraine triggered supply disruption from two of the world's largest wheat producers, requires evaluation of previous government interventions to determine what the real problem is, with a focus in the background of the commitments of the Millennium Development Goals and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) to enhance the policies on "No Poverty," "Zero Hunger," and "Good Health and Well-being."