Sharjah24 - Reuters: On the fertile clay plains of Sudan's Gezira Scheme, farmers would have normally started tilling the soil weeks ago before planting out rows of sorghum, or peanuts, sesame and other cash crops.
Instead, in a country stalked by sharply rising hunger, swathes of the 8,800 square km (3,400 square mile) agricultural project lie untouched.
Farmers who spoke to Reuters say the government, which has been cut off from billions of dollars in international financing following a coup in October, failed to buy their wheat under promised terms earlier this year.
That, they say, means they did not have the money to fund the new crop now.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has further complicated the outlook, driving prices for inputs such as fertilizer and fuel to new highs.
That puts current and future seasons in jeopardy, the farmers say, in an unstable country where the humanitarian situation has deteriorated and it is unclear how authorities will afford to finance imports of increasingly pricy food.
The finance ministry did not comment directly on the farmers' statements about wheat purchases, but told Reuters it was making efforts to provide the necessary funding.
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