Grassroots Engineering
Marhaba, This is the 60th issue of Atar English, published by the Sudan Facts Center for Journalism. It reaches you every two weeks with reporting from across Sudan.
War changes the way a country works. Farming, trade, education and community life continue, but under very different conditions. People find ways to adjust, often because there is no other choice. The costs of those adjustments, however, are not shared equally.
This issue begins with farmers dealing with a difficult agricultural season. In “Grassroots Engineering,” farmers describe how they are changing planting methods, relying on local knowledge and experimenting with ways to cope with irregular and scarce rainfall. Their experience shows how much practical knowledge exists at the local level, but also how much farmers are being asked to manage on their own.
The diesel report looks at another part of the same problem. Since the removal of fuel subsidies, the cost of preparing and cultivating land has risen sharply. Farmers have responded by reducing cultivated areas, delaying operations or taking on more debt. What was presented as an economic reform has become, for many farmers, another cost they have to absorb.
Our report on Sudan-Egypt trade looks at how the war is changing the country’s trade routes. Egypt has become Sudan’s largest trading partner, with gold making up much of Sudan’s exports and Egyptian fuel and other goods moving south. These routes are helping keep markets supplied, but they are also creating a closer economic relationship with Egypt at a time when Sudan’s domestic production and trade infrastructure have been badly disrupted.
The story of Basmat Suleiman Mursal Khalil, the “Iron Woman of Sinnar”, offers a different picture. Through women’s agricultural associations and collective farming, she has helped farmers produce food, clear irrigation canals and support displaced families. Her approach is straightforward: people need the means and knowledge to produce, not only assistance to get through another crisis.
The issue ends with Sudan’s universities, where the consequences of displacement are still unfolding. Universities are being pushed to return to their original campuses after more than three years of war. But reopening a campus does not restore an institution. Lecturers remain displaced, infrastructure is damaged, housing is limited and many students have built new lives elsewhere. For some, returning may mean giving up the work and arrangements that have allowed them to continue their lives during the war.
Taken together, these stories point to a familiar pattern. Sudanese people continue to make things work, often with fewer resources and less institutional support than before.
There is something important in that ability to adjust, but there is also a danger in relying on it indefinitely. When people are expected to absorb the costs of failed policies, disrupted institutions and prolonged war, adaptation can become an excuse for those failures to continue.
The people in these stories are already doing what they can to keep farms, markets, communities and universities going. The responsibility for rebuilding the systems around them cannot be left to them alone.
Atar Editorial Team
