Sorghum production in selected states of Sudan during the 2023/24 growing season

The crop assessment work presented in this report focuses on monitoring the area, yield, and production of sorghum planted during the 2023/24 growing season. Our analysis covers the states of Gedaref, Sennar, and Blue Nile, which are Sudan’s main surplus sorghum producers. Sorghum is Sudan’s staple crop and has been referred to as a banking alternative because it can be safely stored for more than a year in underground pits called Matmuras. For the analysis, we first used satellite data to identify areas (pixels in the satellite images) grown with sorghum. Next, we related the peak normalized difference vegetation index (Peak-NDVI) with yield data obtained from crop cuts. In the last step, we applied the resulting regression line to all sorghum areas. The major insights from the report include the following: ♦ Crop conditions were better than expected despite the many challenges farmers faced in 2023/24; ♦ Sorghum planted area in 2023/24 in Gedaref, Sennar, and Blue Nile States was similar to the previous two years; ♦ The 2023/24 state level average productivity of sorghum was around 1 t/ha; ♦ The 2023/24 estimated total sorghum production was 3.3 million t (by state: Gedaref, 1.70; Sennar, 0.99; and Blue Nile, 0.63 million t).