Standing among the withering date palms that once sustained his livelihood, Hatem Abdelhamid watches helplessly as Sudan’s war-driven power outages choke irrigation systems and decimate his harvest.
“I’ve lost 70% to 75% of my crops this year,” he said, surveying the brittle trees in his Nile-side village of Tanqasi in Sudan’s Northern State. “I’m trying everything I can to keep the rest alive.”
Already reeling from two years of conflict and economic collapse, Sudan’s agricultural sector now faces a new crisis: nationwide blackouts that threaten to turn the country’s breadbasket into barren fields.
Since war erupted between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in April 2023, state-run power plants have been repeatedly targeted, suffering severe damage and ultimately leaving farms without water.
Like most Sudanese farms, Abdelhamid's depends on electric-powered irrigation, but the system has been down “for over two months” due to the blackouts.
Sudan had barely recovered from the devastating 1985 drought and famine when war flared again in 2023, delivering another blow to the country’s agriculture.
Farming remains the main source of food and income for 80% of the population, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.
Now in its third year, the conflict has plunged more than half the population into acute food insecurity, with famine already taking hold in at least five areas and millions more at risk across conflict-hit regions in the west, center and south.
The war has also devastated infrastructure, killed tens of thousands of people and displaced 13 million.
A 2024 joint study by the U.N. Development Programme and the International Food Policy Research Institute found that nearly one-third of rural households have lost irrigation and water access since the war began.
Without electricity to power his irrigation system, Abdelhamid – like thousands of farmers across the country – was forced to rely on diesel-powered pumps.
But with fuel scarce and prices now more than 20 times higher than before the war, even that option is out of reach for many.
“I used to spend 10,000 Sudanese pounds (about $5, according to the black market rate) for irrigation each time,” said another farmer, Abdelhalim Ahmed. “Now it costs me 150,000 pounds because there is no electricity,” he told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Ahmed said he has lost three consecutive harvests – including crops like oranges, onions, tomatoes and dates.
With seeds, fertilizers and fuel now scarcely available, many farmers say they won’t be able to replant for the next cycle.
In April, the Food and Agriculture Organization warned that “below-average rainfall” and ongoing instability were narrowing the window to prevent further deterioration.
A June study by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) projected that Sudan’s overall economic output could shrink by as much as 42% if the war continues, with the agricultural sector contracting by more than one-third.
“Our analysis shows massive income losses across all households and a sharp rise in poverty, especially in rural areas and among women,” said Khalid Siddig, a senior research fellow at IFPRI.
