Combating famine by grain storage in Western Sudan

Traditional grain storage used to be an effective mechanism to combat famine in the rural areas of W Sudan. Of late, this mechanism has failed to function and a severe famine took place in 1984–1985. This paper endeavours to highlight this crisis, show the traditional methods of grain storage and point out to ways of retrieving grain storage systems to start again on a less vulnerable basis. An assessment of grain storage requirements under the new conditions where both market and subsistence economy are effective in rural areas is made for the different ecological zones of W Sudan.