Resource information
The report assesses the main factors
which constrain the sustainable development of the Gezira
Scheme (GS), to develop medium, to long term plans,
including short-term actions, to address those constrains.
The GS, is described as a large and complex enterprise,
because although it is one the world's largest
irrigation systems, it has become one of the least
efficient, irrespective of the fact that it uses thirty five
percent of Sudan's current allocation of Nile water,
producing two-thirds of the country's cotton exports.
Following debates on recommendations to convert the GS into
a joint stock company, the Government requested the Bank to
review, and assess options for the GS sustainability. The
report identifies the following problem areas: large debt
burden; institutional weaknesses, stemming from a
centralized administration, and monopoly service enterprises
not financially sustainable; infrastructure, and technical
deficiencies; uneconomic production due to low average
yields; and, social inequities. Recommendations suggest
medium to long term plans for institutional change, through
public/private partnerships to establish an independent,
privately managed Gezira Authority, who would decentralize
managerial activities to competent farmer groups, and, in
cooperation with government agencies, would coordinate
institutional functions in irrigation, agricultural
extension, and market information dissemination.
