The Sudan Handbook

136 thE sudan handbook

earnings, with their contribution dropping from 100 per cent to around

six per cent in the 15 years to 2009. Even before that, cotton, traditionally

the bedrock of the export trade, had declined in importance, displaced

by livestock and sesame. Other significant commercial exports are gum

arabic and sugar.

Subsistence agriculture, including production of sorghum and other

staples, remains the norm in many parts of the country. The South and

the northern peripheries continue to be dependent on nomadic pasto-

ralism and small-scale, rain-fed farming. These have only been partially

displaced in some central and northern areas (especially Blue Nile state)

by mechanized projects and huge irrigation schemes. Just as they were

throughout much of the last century, these projects are deeply controver-

sial. Many criticize the implications for workers’ rights and smallholder

land tenure. However, with the government seeking to diversify the

economy away from oil through its ‘Green Revolution’ strategy, and Gulf

Arab countries once again showing an interest in investing in schemes to

secure their own food security, more mechanized projects are likely.

Despite the ongoing importance of agriculture, oil has become the

main driver of the Sudanese economy. A series of recent discoveries

has led to a significant increase in known reserves, which stood at an

estimated 6.6 billion barrels in 2009 (although, for comparison, this was

still only around one-fifth of reserves in Nigeria). As a result, output

rose rapidly from a start-up level of 130,000 barrels per day following the

opening, in August 1999, of the first oil export pipeline from the Unity

and Heglig oilfields (in Concession blocks 1, 2, and 4, on the north-south

border), to Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast. Oil production peaked at

an average of almost 500,000 barrels per day in 2007, before falling back

somewhat in 2008–09.

This steady increase resulted in economic growth averaging seven

per cent a year in the decade to 2008, compared with an average of

four per cent in the previous ten years. Moreover, growth was relatively

stable and predictable, contrasting with the strong positive and negative

swings associated with the former agricultural economy. It was boosted

The Sudan Handbook, edited by John Ryle, Justin Willis, Suliman Baldo and Jok Madut Jok. © 2011 Rift Valley Institute and contributors further in 2005–08 by the additional benefits of the peace agreement

(www.riftvalley.net).