THE INIPACT OF DATA AND INFOR MATION ON AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT PLANNING IN SUDAN

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study aims at investigating on the information system in the agricultural sector of the Sudan in general and its impact on planning agricultural development in particular. Sudan practiced development planning since early sixties of the previous century starting from the Ten Year Development Plan (l96l-62/1970-71) up to the Comprehensive National Strategy (Il992-2002), the agricultural sector as a leading sector had the lion’s share in all the ‘development plans. On comparing achievements and objectives of the development plans executed in Sudan, we found that there is a gab in the sense that these plans did not achieve fully their objectives. On investigating on the causes of this failure a number of factors arose, such as inadequate finance, political instability, poor data quality and data in availability. For the purpose of this study the Extended Five-Year Plan (1970- 71/I976-77) was taken as a case study to be analyzed from the side of plan building, execution and achievements. The research methodology used is analytical and empirical in nature. A questionnaire was designed to detect the current

information system performance to identify the points of weakness and strength. The Study is composed of six chapters, chapter one is covering the research plan. The following four chapters tackled the theme of the study, while the last chapter presented the testing of the hypotheses, the research findings and some recommendations. The main recommendation set by the study is the proposal for the establishment of agricultural database in the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MOAF) to be the only authentic source of agricultural information.