Impact of changing policies on agricultural productivity: a case of the Gezira scheme, Sudan

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of changing agricultural policies on the productivity of agricultural crops and area in the Gezira scheme, Sudan. The study focuses on four major institutional changes namely, joint account system (JAS), individual account system (IAS), economic liberalisation (EL) and water users associations (WUAs) in the Gezira scheme. Data on productivity and area of the crops were collected for the period of 40 years from 1970s to 2009 to investigate the historical impact of policies on productivity in Gezira scheme. Data were statistically analysed using SPSS. The results indicate that sorghum productivity and area have been increasing owing to change in policies. Cotton productivity and area show decreasing trend with time. Groundnuts productivity gives mixed results. The accumulated impact of IAS, EL and WUAs gives positive results on sorghum but negative results for cotton. It can be said that change of institutional polices and arrangements in irrigated sector have an influence on productivity of agricultural crops.