Sudan is blessed with a wealth of millions hectares of fertile land. Dams have been built throughout the country that divert nearly sixty percent of the water resource to sustain the agricultural sector.

Sudan grows a variety of crops that include cereals (wheat, sorghum, millet, corn and rice), oil seeds (sesame, groundnuts and sunflowers), beans, chickpeas, and lentils. Others include cotton, sisal hemp, and fodder crops. Horticultural crops include vegetables (onions, tomatoes, okra, egg-plant, potatoes, water-melon, cucumber), tropical and equatorial fruits.

Koppert and KOI Group will now explore opportunities for biological crop protection and IPM in Sudan in order to support growers to move away from chemicals and support the building of the ‘future food basket’ of Africa and the Arab world. The objective is to encourage sustainable farming practices and promote a culture of safe farming methods that can support the government’s food safety and food security initiatives.

KOI group is active in different sectors of the economy and KOA Sudan is their flagship for agricultural investments. 'There are many opportunities in the Middle East and North Africa, such as Sudan for sustainable agricultural investment' said Khalid Khalil Osman, Chairman of KOI Group.

Koppert’s advanced biological systems, together with training and after sales support, will foster farming practices based on an integrated pest & disease management approach, with the least possible disruption to agro-ecosystems. A totally comprehensive approach to both the crop and its environment by creating optimal soil conditions and maximizing crop resilience, combined with biological pest management solutions will lead to a substantial reduction in the use of chemical crop protection products and artificial fertilizers.

KOI will support Koppert’s efforts to solve challenges of logistics, knowledge sharing and motivation of growers to use products that are beneficial not only for the crops, but to the people and the environment.

‘We need to produce food with less input, but higher yields and quality. This means that we need to look at sustainable intensification and produce crops with a lower production risk and less pressure on the environment’ said Koppert’s Managing Director, Henri Oosthoek.