Cropping Pattern

The irrigable area of the scheme is 450 000 feddan in total extent but of effective net area 385 000 feddan The distribution of the net irritable area, and the current cropping, are reported to be (NIRP report, 1992, Vol. 3 of 4:F5):

New Halfa Corporation 330 000 feddan

(of which: sorghum 80 000

cotton 80 000

wheat 54 000

groundnut 50 000

i.e. intensity 80%)

Sugar Corporation: 42 000 feddan

(24 000 irrigated, intensity 57%) Freehold land around villages

(fodder and vegetables): 24 000 feddan

Miscellaneous (forestry, research station,

seed farm, etc.): 54 000 feddan

It appears that the cropped area is sometimes limited by the water available from the dam, which is affected by the silting of the reservoir and also by the policy followed for hydropower generation. The actual capacity of the Reservoir now is approximately 50-60%, that is why the actual irrigated area is declined to 230-260 000 feddan yearly depending on the amount of the rain (The Technical Department of the Scheme)¹⁶⁸.

As mentioned before, a three-year crop-rotation system (cotton, wheat/sorghum, and groundnuts) has been prescripted to all tenants (Fig. 5.5). The recognized rotation in Sudan is groundnuts followed by cotton followed by wheat. The primary objective is to ensure that cotton receives the advantage of the nitrogen fixing ability of the groundnuts. These three types of crops had been dictated through the following parameters (NHAC 1986:

Annex2 p.5 ):

168 The actually cultivated area in Season 92/93 was as follows: Cotton (44 130 feddan), Sorghum (74 145 feddan), Wheat (60 000feddan), Groundnuts (57 620 feddan) (according to the manager of the New Halfa Agricultural Research Center).

Fig 5.5 The Rotation System in New Halfa Scheme

Source: Own Survey

− the total amount of water which the Project as a whole can use (1.62 million/m³)

− the storage capacity of the Khashm El Girba reservoir

− the canal and pump capacity

− national interest in foreign earnings

− the climatic factors: rainfall, high temperatures, and low humidity

− soil factors¹⁶⁹

− markets

− existing infrastructure

− tenant acceptance

Such three-course rotation appears to have several advantages like:

− Cotton, the main national cash crop, is a well tried crop in conditions similar to those of Butana although the Halfawyeen have no previous experience with it and the settlers of phase II and III are not well familiar with;

− The advantage of groundnuts both as a legume and as a cash crop backed by an increasing research effort;

− Wheat (temperate crop) is a grain crop with which the Halfawyeen are already familiar although the other settlers would prefer to grow ‘dura’

(THORNTON/WYNN, 1987:219).

In the middle of 1980s, and according to the period of drought, sorghum (dura) were introduced in the irrigated projects as a corn crop as well as a fodder crop. In addition, the rotations here, like the Rahad Scheme, do not include a fallow (Fig. 5.6), opposite of the Gezira and Managel Extension rotations (15%).

169 Traditional practices such as mixed and sequential cropping help to ensure continuous plant cover of the soil. The introduction of continuous monocropping, in parts of the Sudan, has lead to dust-bowl conditions and loss of top-soil (UPTON, 1987:8).

Wheat Cotton

Groundnuts Jun - Jan / Feb

Groundnuts Wheat

Cotton Aug / Feb

Wheat

Nov /Apr Groundnuts Cotton

Fig. 5.6 Cropping Cycle in New Halfa Scheme

The general features of the agricultural production in the northern Region can be summarized as follows:

− the number of crops that can be produced economically is greater than those produced in any of the other Regions;

− there are some crops whose production is to a great extent monopoly of this region, such as faba beans, haricot beans, lentil and many spices;

− the northern Region is leading other Regions in citrus and mango-growing and is one of the leading Regions in onions production;

− one can say that the region is considered the major producer of fruits.

Gendettu Scheme

At Gendettu, the farming year is traditionally divided into three seasons influenced by the annual flood of the River Nile (Fig. 5.7):

1- The summer Season (seifi): extends from 1st April to 31st July and is characterized by rising temperatures in April, May and June. Because of the heat, the summer cropped area is low. The main crop is fodder sorghum (sorghum vulgar) and vegetables.

2- The damira Season: from August to October and known also as the flood Season. This season is less hot and more humid. The season is devoted primarily to grain sorghum. In addition, some farmers plant small areas of maize, vegetable and lubia (Dolichos Lablab).

3- The winter Season (Shitwe): extends from November to March and is the main cash crop growing Season. There are a very wide range of crops in winter Season like, faba beans (Vicia faba), wheat (Triticum aestivum), haricot beans (Phaseolus vulgaris), vegetables, spices and onions (Allium cepa).

In addition, Perennial crops comprising orchards and alfalfa (Medicago sativa) occupy significant areas on the Gendettu. Orchards include grape fruit, orange, lime, mango, bananas, guava and dates. Alfalfa is grown as a crop in its own right and as an intercrop in orchards.

This pattern of cropping -judging by the significant areas of irrigated land that are devoted to fodder production both in pure stand and as an orchard intercrop¹⁷⁰- shows also that livestock consider an integral part of the farming system. They are kept for the provision of

170 Sorghum has remained the main green fodder supplemented by lubia though this pattern is changing with increasing areas of Alfalfa. Crop residues are also important sources of livestock feed.

J F M A M J J A S O N D Grundnuts

Cotton Wheat Sorghum

draught power, transport, milk, meat and by-products¹⁷¹. The need for working oxen is an important consideration in the overall farm power requirements (WEDDERBURN and ERRINGTON, 1985:15).

Fig. 5.7 Cropping Cycle in Gendettu Scheme

Season J F M A M J J A S O N D Crops

1- Summer season ,,,,,,,,,,,,, Fodder sorghum, vegetable

2- Damira season ... grain sorghum, maize, veg.,lubia

3- Winter season ****** *** faba beans,haricot beans wheat, spices, veg., ,and onions

Gendettu Scheme was originally established to grow cotton according to rotation system;

each rotation 1500 feddan. After the establishment of the Gezira Scheme (1924), growing cotton had been canceled, and farmers have been allowed to determines the cropping patterns within a three-course rotation. In 1972, many farmers have got permission to grow fruit and the outcome was that, orchards’ areas were expanded from 532 to 1600 feddan.

The size of the rotation has also, consequently, expanded from 1500 to 3200-3300 feddan in Season 92/93¹⁷². The expansion and changing in the rotation’s size and the original design cropping patterns, and the constancy of the original installed pump capacity on the other side, results in a high pumping requirement with pumping between 14 and 18 hours per day for 17 ten-day periods. Such pumping duration is more than the average in the other NAPC projects.

5.4.2 Production Relations: from Sharecropping Arrangement to a Fixed-rent Contract

New Halfa Scheme

It is arguable that many of the specific managerial problems and defective organizational relations in New Halfa have their roots in an overall conception of the role of the corporation, of the nature of the Scheme, and of the nature of tenant-corporation relationships (NHAC 1986: ANNEX 7, p.6). This relationship has been defined, according to the NHAC Establishment order (1980), as a partnership between tenant and corporation (and therefore implicitly, government) in the production, processing and marketing of cotton - other crops and non-agricultural activities normally falling outside the

‘Partnership’ concept.

171 Camels and donkeys are basic to local transport and marketing whilst sheep, goats and cows provide a valuable source of meat and milk.

172 According to the manager of the Scheme.

In New Halfa, as well as in the other large irrigation Schemes Gezira and Rahad, the production of cotton remains the conceptual „raison d’ˆetre“ of the Corporation and Scheme (NHAC 1986: ANNEX 7, p.7). Therefore, the relations of production had been divided in the Establishment order of NHIRP (Chapter 5 and 10)¹⁷³ to these of cotton production and those of other crops:

1. Cotton crop Relations of Production:

a- Relations of production for cotton shall be based on a partnership between the Corporation and the tenants.

b- Tenants shall be granted rising money incentives if the general yield average in the Corporation exceeds the average established by the Minister from time to time.

c- Return of the cotton crop shall be distributed after discounting the „joint accounts“ and any duties or other taxes; this shall be calculated according to proportions recommended by the Board and approved by the Minister.

2. Relations of Production for Other Crops:

a- Tenants shall pay to the Corporation fees for water and management services provided to the areas cultivated under other crops, except any exempted crops. The fees shall be paid in accordance with rates and procedures recommended by the Board and approved by the Minister.

b- The net total returns from the other crops shall belong to the tenant

The Corporation thereby is (for cotton) responsible for a wide range of operations including:

− distribution of water to the hawasha;

− land preparation;

− ridging;

− clearing of the quartenary canal (for the cotton crop);

− provision of seed and fertilizer;

− crop protection;

− the securing of a supplementary labor force when necessary;

− the securing of the credit (in cash and kind) associated with all those functions; and

− the collection and marketing of the crop

It is thus responsible for the major functions affecting the quality of the cotton crop, and the efficiency of its management is the major determinate of cotton yields.

Tenants’ initiative and responsibility, in turns, are exercised only in planting, supervision of watering in the hawasha, cultivating (weeding), picking and delivery to the cotton collection center. Their work that has to be carried out according to timetable, is closed controlled. It is noticeable here, as RUTHENBERG (1963:706-7) pointed out, to find side by side primitive and high mechanized processes. Cotton planting by hand and

„Grabstock“, field plowing by tractors and pest control by plane. However, this kind of partnership between the scheme, government, and tenants „production under close supervision“, he argues, is successful since it enables the tenants to share the responsibility

173 NHAC 1981:ANNEX 7, APPENDEX 1, p. 4,5 and 24.

and- beside the high level of the agricultural technique- achieves a good monetary result for the scheme as well.¹⁷⁴

In the light of the triple-partnership between the Corporation/government and the tenant, the Corporation had established three accounts; joint accounts, the general, and individual accounts¹⁷⁵. The first one, Joint Account (JA), had played a long time ago an essential role in all public irrigation schemes:

Joint Accounts (JA): the components of such accounts are demonstrated in Table 5.3.

Distribution of Returns:

i - The following items should be allocated after deducting from the joint accounts any duties or taxes, at the following rates:

a) 2% for the local people’s government.

b) 5% for social services.

ii- The Corporation and the tenants share those rates as follows:

- The Corporation shall pay 50%

- Tenants shall pay 50%.

The payments of tenants’ share should be played from the sales of cotton, subject to rates and at appointed periods recommended by the Board of Directors.

The General Account of Tenants: this account register the full share of tenants from the net returns on cotton, as well as the total share of profits allotted to them from any other profit sharing crop. The net general account of tenants should be apportioned among tenants in accordance with the weight and the grades of the cotton delivered to the Corporation.

Individual Accounts of Tenants: according to this account, the Corporation issue an account book, against payment to every tenant, in which all loans he might take will be debited against his individual account, and this book will also register details and grades of cotton delivered by the tenant to the Corporation. Furthermore, the following items should be deducted from the individual tenant accounts:

174 RUTHENBERG (1963:709-13) argues that agricultural „production under close/strict supervision“ is not general applicable principle. A successful agriculture ‘production under close/strict supervision’ yet : (1) requires good trained staff; (2) it must be fiscal profitable; (3) diversity can be endangered for its success.

Monoculture or concentrating the control on one special crop is advisable; (4) to cover the costs of control, the productivity should be high; (5) it is necessary to recken also with the fact that instructions alone are not enough. It is advisable to put the participators in an „strained relationship“ between ‘pressure’ and

‘incentive’. The most important incentive in this connection is the high income. On the other side, as example for the pressure element he designate a- the lease must be proved before it renewal, b- the obligatory sale through the scheme Management. It looks like those two elements or techniques of PRICE’s empirical analysis (SCOTT/MITCHELL 1972:222)- discussed in chapter 2.4 - i.e., integrate and control, by which an Organisation exercises influence over participation behavior. But in Price’s hypothesis play sanctions the central role; (6) we mustn’t forget that such system of supervision could be faced with resistance from those concerned. The Organisation required then intuitive understanding and taking this in account; and (7) the scheme manager needs to have political backing support and to feel economically independent.

175 NHAC (1986), ANNEX 7, APPENDEX 1, p. 25-9.

Table 5.3 Joint Accounts’ Components in New Halfa Scheme

debit credit

supplying fertilizers, spraying, sacks,

thread and labels value of the sale of the cotton crop produced by tenants

ploughing, combating seepage and fighting erosion

value of any other crops shared between tenants and the Corporation

uprooting cotton stalks, stacking them,

removing and burring them value of the sale of any machinery, equipment or material purchased by discount on joint accounts

sowing cotton or any other crop shared by

the Corporation and the tenants any fine or indemnity secured against harm or loss inflicted on cotton or any other crop in the shared returns between the tenants and the Corporation

payments for picking

expenses paid for collection centers transporting from the field to the ginning factories

clearing out any heavy weeds and roots ginning

supplying sacks for the seeds in order to be packed after ginning

paying for freight and transportation to Port Sudan

insurance storage

guarding the scheme against animals commissions on sales and publicity any other operations recommended by the Board and approved by the Minister digging canals for irrigation

− clearing ‘Abu Sita’ canals (field canals) and paying for the costs of the water pipe;

− clearing the ‘Abu Ishreen’ (quaternary canal) which is opposite the holding;

− cutting;

− agricultural loans;

− green ridging;

− fees paid for recruiting pickers;

− other additional loans; and

− any costs paid for operations which tenants failed to carry out and which fall within their obligations, and which they must carry out at an appointed time.

On the other hand, the share of the tenant from the net general tenants’ account has registered to his credit in his individual account.

Critique of The Production Relationship

The survival and growth of societies depends on generating a set of production relations which allow individuals or households to carry out their current and intertemporal decisions effectively (BINSWANGER/ROSENZWEIG 1989:505).¹⁷⁶ Production relations therefore should be expected to adapt, however imperfectly, to the current and intertemporal problems faced by people. Thereby, the authors understand the production relations as jointly determined (1) by aspirations for higher incomes, for lowering risks, and for dealing with misfortunes, (2) by the material and technological constraints faced in the specific environment, and (3) by behavioral and technological constraints information acquisition and transmission.

Discussion with farmers, in the scope of NHIRP (NHAC 1986: ANNEX 8, p.7), has found that the practiced Joint Account system is a disincentive to them to grow cotton. They do not expect revenues from cotton sales because „very often the cotton accounts are burdened with debts accumulated from previous years. Together with the debits of the concerning year the balances of the cotton accounts are often negative, thus the debts are not paid back“.¹⁷⁷ The remarkable result from this situation was deterioration in the cultivated and harvested cotton areas and therefore negative influence on the whole schemes concerning the ‘relations’ and ‘production’.

Because of the importance of cotton in the Sudan’s economy, the Rehabilitation study has argued that „the reorganization of the relationship between the corporation and the tenants concerning the costs and revenues of cotton is the most important and most critical point of all measures in the Scheme” NHIRP (NHAC 1986: ANNEX 8, p.12). The study has recommended, therefore, the need of short-term measures, working together with the solution worked out by the IBRD¹⁷⁸, to establish a modified Joint Account system avoiding some disadvantages of the traditional system, and find an eventual solution for the whole Sudan¹⁷⁹. In the long run, assumed the study, that the Joint Account system will be replaced by a system fulfilling the following criteria NHIRP (NHAC 1986: ANNEX 8, p.13-4):

− cotton bares only those costs that it itself occasions;

176 This study undertake a step towards a more general theory of production relations in agriculture. The approach it pursue „attempt to provide an analytical framework capable of assisting the joint analysis of the major features of production relations in rural areas, that is, one which will look at the institution governing production and the exchange (or lack thereof) of outputs and of all primary factors of production.“ To do this, it incorporate into the analysis risk, risk version, and information problems jointly and simultaneously with the material features of agriculture and the material attributes of the factors of production.

177 Though the JA has been, later, changed, one still hears such complaints as we will see in the next chapter.

178 The Agricultural Rehabilitation Program Credit has included funds for a Study of cost recovery and tenant charge systems in the public irrigation schemes of Sudan. This has resulted in IBRD’s Report (1980).

179 The abolition of „partnership and the joint account systems“ has been announced in the light of the Presidential Declaration to Parliament (June 1980).

− the cotton price paid to the farmers is directly derived from the world market price, and does not depend on the quality of cotton produced in the Scheme and the costs of the corporation other than marketing costs¹⁸⁰;

− the farmers receive most of the payment upon delivery of the cotton to the collection center by deducting all costs of the Corporation directly related to cotton.

the remainder would be received 12 months afterwards at the latest.

Furthermore, the solutions that have proposed by the IBRD (1980:15) and adopted by the Rehabilitation study say:

• a credit and service contract would be signed every year by the Corporation and each tenant;

• the cost for machinery services and materials would be charged to that crop which had caused them;

• the overhead costs would be recovered by a farm service charge amount to LS 150 per tenant per annum.

In view of the above mentioned background, the 1981/82 agricultural season witnessed a major change in production relations in all irrigated schemes in the Sudan, where the Joint Account system was replaced by an individual account system known as the land and water charge (LWC). One of the main justifications put forward by the IMF-World Bank for that charge was said to be based on efficiency grounds (SALEEM, 1989:1); the so-called „Marshallian inefficiency.“ The assumption here, which is based on the Marshallian theory of sharecropping¹⁸¹, is that the JA as a sharecropping arrangement would result in inefficient allocation of resources relative to the LWC system as a fixed-rent contract.¹⁸² Gendettu Scheme

Production relations in Gendettu has been influenced, like the other governments’ Schemes, by the above-mentioned development. Farmers are connected with the Scheme through

Production relations in Gendettu has been influenced, like the other governments’ Schemes, by the above-mentioned development. Farmers are connected with the Scheme through

Im Dokument Organization and Management for Efficient Irrigation Water-Use (Seite 140-0)