Jibril Affirms State Keenness to Enhance Agricultural Production

The Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr, Jibril Ibrahim, has affirmed the state keenness to enhance the agriculture and livestock sector, especially that Sudan is an agricultural country and cultivation is the primary profession for most of Sudanese people, whether in the north, the west or the east.

In a press statement, he praised the farmers of the Northern State and Nahral-Neil States and called them to increase the production and to work to achieve self-sufficiency, move for exportation in the agricultural and animal resources sectors and to change the inverted image that is happening now of exporting alfalfa and importing milk from the countries to which we export alfalfa.

He said that there are people working to fabricate facts regarding the recent measures on the electricity sector by alleging that these are targeting the people in the north, pointing out that when he returned from abroad, the first area to visit was the Northern State, where he toured the agricultural schemes.

He explained that this allegation is baseless, as the partial lifting of subsidies on electricity included all the  Sudanese and all sectors, whether agricultural,

residential or industrial, stressing that the Ministry of Finance is not the body concerned with determining the financial categories, as it is the responsibility of the Ministry of Energy and Electricity Administration.

He said that the Ministry of Finance is responsible to determine annually the amount of support for electricity in the budget, which was set this year at 60%, indicating that the consumer bears 31% of the production cost.

He stated that the Ministry of Finance is consulting with the Ministry of Energy to reduce the burden on the weak categories, thus the current price was reached, to benefit the least consumption people, and it is applied to the agricultural sector, especially to small-scale farmers, pointing out that there are farmers in some areas of Sudan who cultivate without support for the seeds or fertilizers and they do not have electricity.

Jibril stressed the importance of reconsidering the distribution of electricity, especially in this year in which the budget depends on self-resources and no support is expected from abroad, stressing that any problem has a remedy and we seek to remedy the problem, appreciating the state’s move towards the alternative energies at the lowest cost, and revealed a plan for production of solar energy in the next year.