Gezira Scheme

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

The Gezira Scheme is one of the world's largest irrigation projects, located in Sudan near Khartoum where the Blue and White Nile meet. It began under British rule, with water from the Blue Nile sent through canals to farms between the rivers. Gezira means “island,” and the land is well suited to irrigation because the soil slopes toward the Blue Nile and its clay holds water well, so gravity can move water through the canals.

At first, officials wanted farmers to grow wheat, but cotton was seen as a better cash crop for Britain’s textile industry. Egyptian-type long-staple cotton has been grown there since 1904. After irrigation experiments, 24 square kilometres were under cultivation by 1914. Following the Nile’s lowest flood in 200 years, the Sennar Dam on the Blue Nile was completed in 1925 to provide a reliable water supply.

Financing came from the Sudan Plantations Syndicate in London, with the British government later guaranteeing capital. In 1950 the Sudan Gezira Board took over, led by Arthur Gaitskell. A vast network of canals and ditches, about 4,300 kilometres long, served the farms. With the Manaqil Extension on the western side completed in the early 1960s, by 2008 the irrigated area reached about 8,800 square kilometres, roughly half of Sudan’s irrigated land. Cotton remained the main crop.