Message of the Republic of Sudan's Minister of Agriculture:

Sudan is one of the oldest date-producing countries in the world, where the civilizations of the Nile Valley depended on the date palm trees and the dates in various levels as it was crucial in their daily life needs. The date palm tree was considered the lifeline to the Nile Valley population, as It was their source of food, building material, irrigation, household utensils, beds, fences and many more. The Date Palm tree in Sudan remains an economic crop and a source of food security, it is cultivated in desert areas throughout the country, serving as a source of income, earning foreign currency and raw materials for industries and contributing to the national development.

The Republic of Sudan was ranked as the eighth globally in the cultivation and production of dates. The dry and semi-dry dates were the only kinds cultivated in Sudan. The date palm cultivation in Sudan is concentrated in three main states: The Northern State, the Nile River and the State of North Darfur,where more than 80% of the total palm trees in Sudan are found, and the remaining is distributed between the states of Khartoum, Al Jazira and the Red Sea. The estimated number of date palm trees in Sudan is 8 million and an annual production estimation of 240,000 tons. Where the north contains about half of the date palm trees and produces 63% of the total production at a rate of approximately 60 kg per tree.

It is to be noted that the most important types of dates in Sudan, which have gained economic importance and international fame, are from the dry kind of dates such as “Kli”, “Gandili”, “Albarkawi” and “AlTamuda”, they are significant by their very large size and excellent quality. Some of the kinds that are considered as wet dates are “AlMadina” and the semi-soft such as “Mashreq”, “Dalgai” and “Mashreq Khattib”.

Over the past decade, the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources of the Republic of Sudan has endeavored to develop the date palm sector because of its importance in maintaining food security at the national and international levels. The ministry ensured providing needed nurturing and cultivation supplies for the date palm tree. Working on developing the date palm sector the ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources in The Republic of Sudan cooperated with several specialized international organizations and specifically with Khalifa International Award for Date Palm and Agricultural Innovation – UAE, through organizing the “Second Sudan International Date Palm Festival” in Khartoum which was an opportunity to benefit from the award’s wide and cumulative experience in motivating researcher, farmers and exporters involved in the cultivation of date palms and agricultural innovation, as well as the special role leaded by the award in supporting researches dedicated to developing the various aspects of the date production industry and spreading the culture of date palm at the local, regional and international levels and supporting the promotion of innovations related to the date industry, in cooperation with the Sudanese Date Palm Society.

H.E. Engineer Issa Osman Al-Sharif
Minister of Agriculture and Natural Resources

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