Coll 54/2 'Middle East (Official) Committee: Working Party' [‎15v] (30/642)

r •
- 8 -
This programme of LS 10 millions is being financed as
to £stg. 2^millions from a special grant-in-aid from the British
.Government'and as to the remainder from the Sudan Governments
reserves.
^In addition, provision has been made for the capital of
LB 3z millions which will be required by the organisation
which is being set up to take over the management of the
Gezira Scheme in 1950 from the Sudan Plantations Syndicate,
Limited, and the Kassala Ootton Company, Limited.
(b) Further Development
The present 1946-1950 x^rogramme is severely taxing
the Sudan Government’s technical resources and it is unlikely
to bo completed before mid-1951. Detailed thought has not
yet been given to the next programme that is a task which will
have to be tackled next year but certain lines of further
development stand out very clearly;
(i) Further extension of irrigation.
It is estimated that at least 2.8 million acres are
irrigable by systematic irrigation from the Nile as
compared with the present area of about 1.2 million
acres. Soil and contour surveys are now being made to
determine the total irrigable area more closely but they
will take several years to complete. The Sudan is,
however, now using, or will shortly be using, the whole
of her entitlements under the Nile Waters Agreement and
any further expansion is dependent ux^on the Lake Tana and
Equatorial Nile Projects. The raising of the level of
Sennar reservoir, which is provided for in the technical
agreement with Egypt on the Lake Tana project, offers a
more immediate prospect of relief; this would givo an
additional 150 million m 3 of stored water at relatively
small cost if Egypt can be persuaded to agree to it in
advance of the construction of the works at Tana.
Assuming that the necessary water can be secured and it is
^ally justified, the extension of the irrigated area to
2.8 millions or more acres would take many years to achieve.
(ii) Further extension of drinking water supplies by
surface storage tsinks and bores to open ux> new areas for
cultivation and to permit a greater utilisation of the country f s
cattle resources. •
(Hi) Development of rainlands.
The plains of the Central Sudan, now sparsely populated
because of lack of water during the dry season, offer the
prospect of a groat increase in .agricultural production if
exploited by modern methods. A pilot scheme for mechanical
crop production started a few years ago is now getting over
its teething troubles and similar schemes elsewhere are now
being considered. The emphasis at present is on the
production of dura (sorghum) but attention is being givon to
other crops.
If these plains can be turned into the granary of the
Sudan, it may then be possible to eliminate grain from the
rotation in the irrigated Gezira Scheme and thus release
expensive stored water for more valuable crops.
(iv)