Sudan’s harvest is being squeezed by war, fuel and fertilizer costs

Farmers in Sudan are preparing for a summer planting season with higher fuel and fertilizer costs, even as more than 19.5 million people — over 40 percent of the population — are already facing crisis levels of hunger.

Arab News, carrying Reuters reporting, said eight farmers from different parts of Sudan and agricultural experts warned that global fuel and fertilizer price rises linked to the Iran conflict would force cutbacks in planting. The pressure threatens staple domestic crops such as sorghum and millet, as well as export crops including sesame.

Sudan is exposed because its agricultural system depends on supplies it does not fully control. The country relies on Gulf countries for more than half of its fertilizer needs, according to UN data cited in the reporting, while the war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has left it entirely dependent on imported fuel.

That creates a direct chain from regional war to household hunger. If fuel and fertilizer become more expensive, farmers plant less or spend more to produce the same crop. If planting falls, domestic food supply tightens. In a country already facing acute hunger and famine risk in some areas, a weaker harvest can quickly become a humanitarian emergency.

The Milli Chronicle version of the Reuters report adds that key agricultural regions and crops are being affected, including sorghum, millet, wheat and sesame. It also cites Sadig Elamin, a senior food security analyst for the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in Sudan, in the context of regional pressure on food security, though the supplied excerpt does not include his full assessment.

The framing differs by region and outlet. Middle East-focused coverage foregrounds the Iran conflict and its knock-on effects through Gulf-linked fertilizer and fuel channels. Africa and humanitarian frames put Sudan’s internal war and hunger emergency closer to the centre. Both are needed to understand the mechanism: external price shocks are landing on a food system already damaged by civil war.

The wider stakes are not only Sudanese. Shrinking aid budgets, regional conflict, disrupted imports and falling planting capacity are converging in one of the world’s most severe hunger crises. When a country with major agricultural potential cannot secure affordable inputs, the result is not just lower production, but deeper dependence on aid and imports.

For readers, the important shift is that hunger risk is moving through farm inputs before it appears at markets or aid lines. Fuel, fertilizer, planting decisions and harvest volumes are now part of the humanitarian story. The next pressure point may be less visible than a battlefield, but it will be measured in food availability, prices and whether families can eat through the next season.