MECHANIZED FARMING

closed

The project would be the first example in the Sudan of a systematic, planned approach to the development of land for mechanized farming. Twenty-five year leases, coupled with better water supplies and roads, would encourage investment in adequate machinery and other on-farm improvements. Adequate machinery and improved husbandry methods would create soil conditions which would help to maintain fertility and in the long term make the use of fertilizer economic. The proposed loan would finance the foreign exchange costs of the first four-year phase of this program. About 140 farms, averaging 1,000 acres each, would be established, but land planning, construction of roads, water supplies and simple conservation works would cover a somewhat larger area to allow uninterrupted transition to later phases of the program. The Corporation would undertake land clearing, recovering the cost through a 25-year development fee. Rents would cover the ongoing cost of a small advisory service, which would supplement the Ministry of Agriculture's extension service by specializing in mechanization problems. About one-third of the proposed loan would be used to establish a farm credit scheme for the purchase of machinery.