Impact of COVID19 on Sudan Agriculture: The Role of Agricultural Extension During the Pandemic Era

Subject Areas : Agricultural Extension

Ahmed  Bereir ¹ (Professor of Agricultural Extension, Department of Agricultural Extension and Training, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, University of Gezira, Sudan)

Received: 2020-03-02 Accepted : 2020-03-26 Published : 2020-03-30

Keywords: Impact, Food Security, Agricultural extension, Sudan, COVID Pandemic,

Abstract :

Agriculture is the backbone of the Sudan economy and represents the biggest industry of the country. The majority of Sudanese people live in rural areas and depend on agricultural production as the main source of their income and food security.This paper was prepared to study the impact of COVID19 on Sudan agricultural production and marketing in addition to the national policy response to mitigate this impact, and to study the role of agricultural extension to help farmers cope with the Covid19 pandemic era. This study wasdescriptive and mainly based on secondary data. The study showed that agricultural production and marketing in Sudan are affected by the impact of COVID-19 pandemic, and the country is also faced by desert locust problem that may cause considerable losses of both crop production and pasture and shortly along with the pandemic will lead to food insecurity in the country.The study also revealed thatthe government of Sudan has taken some measures to alleviate this situation andthe agricultural extension has a key role to help farmers cope with the pandemic era. It can be concluded that agricultural production and marketing in Sudan are not outside the impact of COVID-19 and consequently Sudan food security was affected by the pandemic. The government of Sudan has taken some measures to alleviate this situation. The agricultural extension has a key role to help farmers cope with the pandemic era.