Coll 54/2 'Middle East (Official) Committee: Working Party' [‎12r] (23/642)

1
(ft)
1. Introduction
i k ? hS , 5 udan ? l ."' itl1 311 area of nearly 1 , 000,000 square miles.
? 0rth by ^eypt, on the'East by the Red Sea^'
Eritrea and Ethiopia, on the West by French Equatorial Africa
^ n +^ 0 a the South by Kenya, Uganda and the Belgian Congo. It
extends across the middle reaches of the River Nile, the head
nhvBi'!Li f f Wh + 0h aI, ° in Gentral Africa and Ethiopia, and its
North to th'^+^o 8 - I>a ? Sa from tho dosart 8/1(1 steppe—lands of the
,;i h the tropical swamps and forests of the South. Of a
population of more than 7 , 000 , 000 , between 4 - 5 , 000,000 -
ons ^ P ro fesslng Moslems - live in tho North,
r£ d the South^ nder " a varioty of Primitive and pagan pooplos - .
2. Agriculture
(a)
General description.
(i) The first or Northern region, extendinc from the
boundary with Egypt to near the latitude of KhartoM, has
an average rainfall of loss than 100 millimetres e“h year •
S v° S “ la H agr + lcu “ ur9 0911 only a xist on llnls watered
*och year, by natural flooding or by irrigation.
(ii) The second or Central region covers the areas
aVera ?° 811111131 rainfall ranges from 100 to 600
S, xy JxtorLdi ? g a PP r °xiraately to the 12th parallel of
in cer ^ 8ln i^ypos of crops can be gro.wn by rain*
rL0 ^ th ^ rn P^rt^of the region only on a very limited
rind wh f n . 0311(111:1 on s are favourable; further south
d^the Sti11 sub ‘ jQct to tho variable incidence
ero-nc; q r - f S * hince the season of rains is short, the possible*
arG . 1J1 S orio ral limited to Dura and other types which
1C ^ ly ; . In this rogion irrigation is eSential if
such a v^inohi h haV ° a lansor growing period, and which are
a , . valuable 30U rce of revenue, are to be cultivated.
Irrigation efin aiso bo used to guarantee a dependable food
crop, which will be a valuable safeguard in case of a year of
bad rains and consequent shortage of rain-grown crops.
ot tho 3aciari is tho site of the Gozlra
echo which extends to some 900,000 acres of irrigated land.
gr 0 r n thG long s,fca P l0 cotton on which the economy
f the country mainly depends. in the. Nuba Mountains area
?? S Lf d ha Wh h° Nil ° thQro h8S 818 o boon started a
c °1 ;ton indistry producing good quality American
cotton as a rain crop, *
Prom the central belt also comes the Sudan’s excort of
tho a ?Qglon°of d 28 U 00 o a t d SUm arabic * Gum exports are now In
of revfnuo to ^ country." ^ Pr ° Vli0 a steady SOdrc9
Of - B^n’or.A°mi t ^ errl ? art of t L 10 contral bCi lt contains thousands
son^f^om f of ? nVflIlnal1 country with dark clay "cotton"
from which good crops of grain and oilseeds can be
^onni C +f lf wa t or can b0 madQ available for a cultivating
population, and recent Government policy has been to devfloo
f a f™ a ° r 8UPP 198 i ? this aroa 311(1 t0 increase the out-put P
of food crops by mechanical methods.
. (Hi)