| | In ROAPE 26 (see link below) Jay O'Brien suggested a four-phase periodisation of the 'Formation of the Agricultural Labour Force in Sudan' . Phase I extended from 1898 (the British occupation of the country) to 1925 (when the Gezira Scheme was established). Agricultural development was limited to small-scale experimentation with cotton cultivation. Phase II which started with Gezira, continued to 1950. The supply of agricultural labour to Gezira and a few pump-irrigated private cotton estates dominated all labour policy in that period. West African Muslim immigrants were encouraged by the British Administration to settle in and around Gezira as a ready wage labour supply for the Scheme. Phase III (1950-75) and IV (1975 to the present) constitute O'Brien's main concern. This is only to be expected. The 1950s saw the development of commoditisation in general. This started to affect even the most remote areas and its active agents were merchant capital and the state. With this came the expansion of capitalist agricultural production (the so-called rainfed mechanised farming) resulting in the separation of an increasing number of producers from their means of production. This has forced them to increase cash cropping and/or seasonally migrate to wage labour in large agricultural production areas (so-called irrigated and rainfed mechanised schemes). |
