The emergence of agrarian capitalism in Africa south of the Sahara (Dakar 3 December to 12 December 1973): socio-economic appraisal of agrarian reform in the private cotton estates of Sudan

Abstract

The Sudan is an economy suffering from a. low level of accumulation which is rooted in defective forms of surplus absorption. The Sudanese agricultural sector is still underdeveloped despite extension in land area, increasing number of capitalist farms and increased ties with the market, especially in irrigated areas. These phenomena are accompanied by an ever increasing polarization of the agricultural population and behind them is a lengthy historical record of political, social and economic influences that have arrested the development of the level of productive force in agriculture. This investigation intends to appraise the content of the agrarian reform program implemented so far in one of the sub-sectors of the Sudanese mono-cultural agriculture and to examine the defects inherent in its execution and to suggest improvements in the organization and use of resources in the schemes of the agrarian reform corporation in relation to technical and socio-economic factors so that the goals of increased production and returns could be accomplished.