Summary
The 2014/2015 agricultural season was very favourable, resulting in a high level of national production of sorghum and other cash and food crops such as millet, groundnut and sesame. The national cereal production in 2014/15 was estimated at a record level of 7.84 million tons.
Production was about 176 percent above the previous season’s poor harvest and 86 percent above the 5-years average (2008/09 to 2012/13).
The good harvest did not translate into improvements in food security for most households due to high consumer prices dramatically eroding purchasing power compared to the same time in 2014.
As a result, most surveyed households saw a substantial deterioration in food security over the same period.
In Darfur, a decline in food security (from November 2012 to November 2014) was seen in all five states, but was most pronounced in South and West Darfur, where the proportion of the population classified as food secure shrank by 24 and 22 percentage points, respectively. Food security was lowest in West, Central and North Darfur, where only, on average, approximately one third (37 percent) of households were found to be food secure.
WFP food security monitoring in Blue Nile detected a similarly deteriorating trend in food security:
Food insecurity increased from March 2014 to December 2014 in three of the five surveyed localities:
Kurmuk, Geissan and Rosseris. The proportion of food secure households was 38, 48, and 53 percent, respectively, up from 63, 88, and 80 percent, respectively in March 2014.
After a period of very high food prices in the first half of 2014, the prospect of a good harvest in the 2014/15 agricultural season, led to a drop in sorghum prices in most of the country. Still, the national average sorghum price in March 2015 was 45 percent above the 5 year average.