Farmers clash with police
Farmers clashed with police on Wednesday in Gezira state, Sudan's agricultural heartland, while demonstrating against an "unacceptable" government offer to buy their land, several protesters said.
Some 400 farmers gathered, early on Wednesday, at the headquarters of the so-called Gezira Scheme, a vast but neglected farming project between the Blue and White Nile, south of Khartoum, despite police efforts to block them.
Some 400 farmers gathered, early on Wednesday, at the headquarters of the so-called Gezira Scheme, a vast but neglected farming project between the Blue and White Nile, south of Khartoum, despite police efforts to block them.
They were then ordered to leave, and were marching towards the office of the state governor when police reinforcements arrived and clashes broke out.
"Now there are clashes between the farmers and the police. Three of the demonstrators were arrested and one of them was taken to hospital after he was injured," Al-Zain Bahit, one of the farmers, told AFP.
He said the police were beating the protesters with sticks.
Three other protesters confirmed the clashes, adding that the farmers were demonstrating against the "unacceptable price" that the government offered to pay them last month for their land, and were shouting slogans such as "Free Gezira!" and "Ali Osman Taha out!"
Taha, the Sudanese vice president, heads the committee which announced the price that the farmers would be compensated for the compulsory acquisition of their land.
Under the Gezira Scheme, set up by colonial ruler Britain in 1925 to cultivate cotton and spanning 840,000 hectares of land divided into lots of 20 feddans (around 8-9 hectares), Khartoum was supposed to pay the farmers rent in return for a share of production.
But it has not done so for more than 40 years, despite receiving 50 percent of what they produce, which includes wheat, sorghum, vegetables and peanuts, as well as cotton.
Since the mid-1970s, production has not risen noticeably.
In 2005, the government introduced a string of reforms aimed at breathing new life into the project, including a law nationalising ownership of the land in return for rental payment in arrears and compensation for the farmers.
Sudan is desperately seeking foreign investment for its agricultural sector to boost output and offset the expected decline in oil revenues after the secession next month of the south, which accounts for around 75 percent of the country's crude output.
Source: newsroom - farmingnewsdaily.co.uk