From Farmland to Dust: Satellite Evidence Shows Sudan’s Land is Failing

If you want to understand what the conflict in Sudan is doing to its people and its land, start with young Yusuf* on the ground and satellite images captured from space.

Yusuf* was just 11 years old when his home was shelled, and he had to run for his life. 

"The sky was black with smoke, and I saw people covered in blood," he recalls. "We ran until we could not breathe. I thought we would be safe here, but there is nothing but dust. I used to have books and a bed. Now we sleep on the ground in a makeshift shelter, and I wait for food that never comes."

Food is becoming harder to grow as Sudan’s conflict drags into its fourth year, leaving one abandoned growing season after another. Fields that should now be tilled and sown for the annual rainy season, which is just beginning, lie in forced fallow. Vast areas where sorghum, millet, and wheat should be taking root instead sit idle. 

As I’ve travelled across Sudan, I’ve witnessed how this combination of conflict and environmental neglect is forcing millions into severe hardship, turning the search for food into a battle for survival. The nutrition centres my humanitarian agency runs are filled with children who are one step away from starvation, restored to health with enriched peanut paste that must now be imported into Sudan, a product the country once produced itself.

Sudan once had the potential to feed itself and much of the region, a promise that drew decades of investment, particularly from Gulf countries seeking food security. At the heart of this system lies the Gezira Scheme, one of the world’s largest irrigation networks, supported by the rain fed farmland belt that runs across Darfur, Kordofan, and eastern Sudan.

But this potential rested on fragile foundations. Years of underinvestment in roads, storage, and irrigation, compounded by governance challenges and rising climate pressures, left the system vulnerable. When conflict erupted in April 2023, much of the irrigation infrastructure, pumping stations, and storage facilities were destroyed.

To understand the scale of Sudan’s agricultural collapse, World Vision conducted a national geospatial assessment, a scientific “health check” of the country’s land, using satellite imagery to compare how green the land was in 2023 with 2025. It showed that in just three years, agricultural land equivalent to the size of Switzerland had become degraded and unproductive.

The imagery data shows Sudan’s farmland collapsing at alarming rates: 30–40% losses in Darfur, up to 30% in South Kordofan, and 14% in Gezira’s Sennar region over that period. It is a countrywide pattern.

Trade routes have also collapsed, leaving 60–75% of households who rely on purchasing food with no way to access staples. What was once a breadbasket is now a landscape of ruins.

Much of the land lies unfarmed because farming families have been driven from their homes and into massive displacement camps, where they are almost entirely reliant on humanitarian aid. More than 12 million of Sudan’s 33 million people are displaced, two-thirds of them inside the country.

Abdulrahman, a father of ten from South Darfur, once farmed groundnuts, sorghum, sesame, and millet. When bombardments forced him to flee, he and his children were trapped in an 18‑month siege in El Fasher with no food, water, or medical care. “Whatever we carried was taken,” he told us. “We were beaten because we had no money.”

Today he lives in a camp in East Darfur. He would like to farm but says, “The land around here is not fertile — there is not enough water… the cost of cultivation is very high, and there is no security to keep away pastoralists who might come and steal my crops.”

The consequences are devastating. Sudan’s cereal production collapsed to 4.1 million tonnes in 2023 — food for 18 million people lost. Erratic rainfall, rising temperatures, and fires are worsening the crisis. Sorghum production, the nation’s staple, is projected to fall by 64%, stripping Sudan of its ability to feed itself.

This is not only a hunger crisis; it is the erosion of the systems required for survival. Approximately 5.5 million people are one step away from starvation. With health facilities across much of the country non‑functional, a malnourished child is not just hungry; they are defenceless.

Yet amid the devastation, there is resilience. World Vision has reached more than 5.6 million people since the conflict began. We are working to protect Sudan’s remaining agricultural land by rehabilitating haffirs (traditional water reservoirs), improving water‑use efficiency, and supporting farmers with drought‑tolerant seeds, tools, and livestock. 

We are also mapping and demarcating livestock routes to reduce land degradation and prevent violent clashes over shrinking resources. And we are investing in flood‑protection infrastructure, soil‑stabilisation measures, and community‑based disaster preparedness to shield fragile farmland from further loss.

These interventions are not enough on their own, but they show that recovery is possible.

What’s needed is a global commitment to save lives now and protect the land that remains. Without it, the soil that once fed generations will turn to dust, and children like Yusuf* will keep waiting for food that never comes.

*Name changed to protect identity.