Desertification,famine, and the 1988 rainfall —

The 1988 good rainy season in the Sudan raised the hopes that desertification/land degradation and shortage of food so markedly observed in Western Sudan have been elevated. This was particularly so as large quantities of grains were produced in the mechanized rain-fed agricultural schemes in the clay plains of Eastern Sudan. But the field work carried by the author in the Umm Ruwaba district of Kordofan region in July/August 1989 shows that, although there has been some improvement in the crop production situation, desertification/land degradation and shortage of food produced locally are still prevailing in the district. The people are still living below the poverty line, but they are able to cope because of remittances from members of the families working abroad and because of donations of food by some world organizations.