Agricultural development and environmental problems in Sudan. The case of EN Nahud Cooperative Credit Project in Kordofan State, Sudan

It has been recognized that environment degradation is always implicit in the activities and efforts that are intended for development and economic growth. One of the main environmental problems that is associated with development activities is the indiscriminate deforestation and clearing of land for agricultural expansion. In the past this was attributed to large commercial farmers, but recently small farmers are believed to play an important role in forest and tree destruction. EN Nahud small farmers Cooperative Credit Project in western Sudan is taken as an example to test this claim. A stratified random sample of 120 small farmers was selected to represent those who benefited from the project and those who did not. The results show that farmers who received credit from the project have expanded their cultivated area rather than increased their productivity per unit of land. Thus, this study illustrates that development projects that are intended for small farmers development also have negative impacts on the environment.