Coll 54/2 'Middle East (Official) Committee: Working Party' [‎17r] (33/642)

AN NE X
THE GSZIRA SCHE ME
In 1925 the- Sennar Dam and canal system were completed
and the first 300,, 000 acres of the Gezira plain put under
irrigation.
The Scheme* which now covers 900*000 acres of the
Gezira plain* is operated on a partnership basis between
the State* as represented by the Sudan Government, the
people, as represented by the native cultivators and
a u specialised management ,i as supplied by the Sudan
Plantation Syndicate and the Kassala Cotton Company
whose suitability for the task had been established by
their successful operation of the earlier pilot-schemes
in the Gezira and a large pumping scheme in the Northern
Provinceo The basic shares of the three partners in the
scheme are: tenant, kOft, Government 40$, and^cotton
companies 20$ - a division which follows the local historical
custom for bhe sharing of irrigated crops between the
cultivators on the one hand and the owners of land and
implements on the othere
Apart from its immense economic value to the Sudan,
the Scheme is of wide interest for its sociological character and
achievemento
Although not comparable in size with the giant Tennessee
Valley Adminis jration* the Scheme has some similarity in
principles and has been faced with some greater obstacles
in pr^c’.' -'e, epg c * the problems of developing a backward
noodle in n ^d of foreign capital but in fear of foreign
rumination, of organising agriculture on sound competitive
lines where i 4 *- has limped along on a peasant basis for centuries
of giving the the strength of a corporate organisation,
and the necessity of doing all this in an atmosphere of
co-operation strong enough to capture the imagination and support
of the people as a whole*
The use* but not the ownership* of the land has been
nationalised, i.e e * no individual owner can keep his land out
of the Scheme or hold the country to ransom on the terms of
entry. Thu Government has assumed entire control of and
responsibility for the land, paying the owners as compensation
a rent equivalent to the highest market rate before the Scheme
started and giving them, in addition, original priority option
to tunancies*
A primary purpose of the Scheme was the production of a
cash crop and, after many difficulties which were overcome
by the. achievements of the Governments agricultural research
institutions* that purpose has been fulfilled. The areas
irrigated were devoted mainly to the cultivation of high-grade
long-staple cotton. By muan 3 of its direct and indirect
revenues*' the Scheme now makes a substantial contribution not
only to the general costs of the administration but to the
development of the social services of health and education
and of new agricultural undertakings in other parts of the
Sudanro Apart from the Government’s share, the cash payments
to the 20,600 tenants, which now amount to more than a million
pounds a year, greatly stimulate the circulation of trade.
Apart/