Access to food, food use, food waste and loss, food pricing and farm income issues are some of the key drivers of food insecurity across Red Sea, Kassala, Gedaref and Blue Nile States, according to research findings presented on Tuesday at a workshop in Khartoum led by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as part of the Food Security and Policy Strategy Capacity Building (FSPS) Programme that is funded by the European Union (EU).

The workshop provided an opportunity to present the findings of research on the key drivers of food insecurity and policy issues that have been identified in four states covered by the FSPS Programme. Several academic institutions in the region were commissioned to conduct eight studies on potential factors affecting food security and nutrition, including the impact of staple food prices, food production and productivity issues, women’s land tenure, farm- and non-farm income, food use and intake, contributions of the fisheries sector and socioeconomic factors impacting malnutrition.

Some of the key findings include:

- Women play a crucial role in improving food security for their families across all states looked at by the Programme.

- Despite women’s full participation in farm activities in Gedarif state, women’s access to land are not secured and this can   have negative impacts on food security for families.

- Fish contributes significantly to household food security in Red Sea state, with 93.8% of people consuming fish for          protein; however, food waste and losses undermine the capacity of the local fisheries sector to properly support food    security in the state.

- The sale of food and cash crops is the main source of income for over 50% of households in most of the states studied.

- Farm income is not enough to meet the food needs of 95% of households coping with food shortages in Blue Nile.

- Non-farm income (such as daily wage labour activities) has positive and significant impacts on food security across all states studied.

Over 50 participants attended the workshop, including the Director Generals of relevant line miniseries, senior technical staff in the federal government institutions and state Food Security Technical Secretariat Coordinators. Participants explored several key policy recommendations to address the research findings. Recommendations included greater support for gender-focused income generating activities, land policy reform to support more secure land rights for women, promotion of non-farm activities to enhance food security for rural families, efforts to increase fish consumption and reduce fish losses, and the development of maternity health and nutrition awareness programs to protect the food and nutrition security of vulnerable families in food insecure localities. The workshop also examined food security and nutrition policy issues in Sudan, including fiscal and trade policy, natural resources development and conservation, agricultural productivity issues, physical and social infrastructure and health and nutrition issues.

“The information presented here is essential to building evidence-based policy responses to food security and nutrition issues in Sudan,” said Dr. Abdi Jama, FAO Representative in Sudan. “Without basing policy on in research evidence, it is not possible to effectively address the key drivers of food and nutrition insecurity in Sudan. This is why the FSPS programme is so important. The programme works to ensure that there is complementarity between research and policy development around these critical issues.”

The Food Security Policy and Strategy Capacity Building Programme (FSPS) is a three-year programme funded by the European Union (EU) and implemented by FAO in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. FSPS was designed to support the state governments in addressing capacity coordination gaps between federal and state-level food security institutions, policy and information systems, and to strengthen the policy planning, budgeting, monitoring and implementation capacity of line ministries The programme covers four states in Sudan: Red Sea, Kassala, Gedaref and Blue Nile.