Vice President of the Republic Hassabu Mohammed Abdal-Rahman has urged the Agricultural Research Corporation to prepare a scientific study on the cultivation of wheat crop in Sudan to continue it planting, development of the experience and indigenization of seeds, or to replace it with other crops of competitive advantages.
He gave directives, during his visit to the Agricultural Research Corporation Saturday, on raising the budget allocated to the corporation to 100 million pounds besides granting it an additional five million pounds for other purposes.
He called for the Government of Gezira State to support the corporation with amount of two million pounds, instructing the Agricultural Bank of Sudan to finance the seeds approved by the corporation to be indigenized internally.
The Vice President of the Republic affirmed concern of the Presidency of the Republic with the scientific research as the basis for renaissance, growth, sustainable development and economic reform. He stated that the most important priorities of the five-year programme were to strengthen the capacity and structures of the Agricultural Research Corporation as the agriculture is the biggest economic challenges facing the state.
The Wali (governor) of Gezira State Dr. Mohammed Yousuf Ali pointed out that that scientific research has become the key to development and progress. He said that the visit of Vice President of the Republic would have a significant impact on the Sudan economy in terms of providing the necessary resources necessary to the corporation to be used in scientific research for the agricultural development, stressing readiness of the state to provide all aspects of the support and backing to corporation.
The State Minister at the Ministry of Agriculture Dr. Jafar Ahmed Abdullah emphasized the need to support Agricultural Research Corporation to carry out its role in implementation of the Arab food security's initiative put forward by the President of the Republic, stressing existence the political will to the state besides its sponsorship and follow-up of agricultural process in Gezira state.
The Director of the Agricultural Research Corporation Prof. Ibrahim Al-dekhairi pointed out that food security is an obsession haunts Sudan and other countries due to the lack of resources or poor knowledge, underscoring importance of sponsoring agricultural and applied research leading to the development of production technologies. He announced the his corporation commitment to support the process of agricultural development and supplying it with modern technologies, calling for the state to allocate more financial resources to the corporation in order to intensify scientific research, and to increase the effectiveness and maintenance of varieties and genetic resources, besides support of capacity building programmes and application of the service conditions to limit immigration of the researchers.