INTERRELATION OF RESOURCE USE EFFICIENCY, CROP PRODUCTIVITY AND HOUSEHOLD FOOD SECURITY IN NORTH SUDAN

This research aims to develop field crops yield among the public schemes tenancies in North Sudan, farm sustainability, assessing food security situation. Primary data were collected by using structured questionnaires on seventy randomly selected respondents from public irrigated schemes of River Nile State. A linear programming model via General Algebraic Modelling System was used to determine the optimal resources combination used for annual crops production in area of the study. Crop yields achieved by tenants were generally low and the yield gap reached 81% for vegetable crops, indicated that much potential gap exists to increase yields of all field crops. The optimal level of the resources use was up to 10 feddans of land, 28,573 m3 water, 191 work-days of labour and SD 179,532 (about US$ 600) as capital available for the cropping season.

The discussion then turns to the multiple threats to food security and available empirical indicators of food security. The optimal return that achieved by the optimal resources use was greater than the basic solution by 100%. Finally, Sudan as a nation has numerous advantages and opportunities with vast agricultural resources. It also faces numerous challenges in the form of inequality in allocation of resources between urban and rural areas, conflicts indifferent parts of the country, lack of investment in infrastructure. The paper concluded that the potential for food crop production in the area is quite promising on account of the tremendous agricultural resources. The policies should consider the economic use of the agricultural resources to increase farm returns, conserve soil fertility and ensure farm sustainability.