Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Analyzing the Capacities of Cotton Production in Sudan

Abstract

In the political economy of the nation of Sudan, cotton ranks significantly high as an essential component of the revenue generation sources. Considering the significance of the crop in the country, cotton has not only been exported to various countries, but some portions of the produce are also used up internally. With that also came, large scale cultivation of the cotton produce on vast swaths of land over the years amidst demands and fluctuations in the marketplace. Given the effects of cotton production on the environment from the use of chemicals and widespread water use, there came changes in the lager agricultural structure that coincided with variations in yield levels, land size and production. Yet, as very little has been done to assess the changing trends in cotton land use in Sudan, no one has bothered to examine the extent and nature of cotton land use and the potentials under a mixscale approach. Accordingly, the paper focusses on cotton land use change, with emphasis on the issues, trends, environmental analysis, impacts, and factors using descriptive statistical techniques connected to Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Through the applications of mixscale model, the study not only showed rising changes in cotton production and yield, but most of the land use indices and the others posted variations as well. While the changes are attributed to a host of socio-economic, ecological, and political elements located within the local farm system, the GIS mappings of the trends point to the gradual dispersion of cotton land use indices spread across different points in space in the study area. There are also widespread impacts in the form of intense water usage, pollution from chemicals, the loss of land and degradation. Along these lines, despite the efforts of the institutions, the paper proffered solutions ranging from education, monitoring to the design of regional and national cotton land use information system.

DOI

10.5923/j.ijaf.20241401.01

Publication Date

1-5-2024

Included in

Agriculture Commons

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