From Farm to Market: Why Does Sudan Need to Build Value Chains?

Noaman Yousif Mohammed
In previous articles in this series, we began with the household and how it can protect its income during inflation. We then moved on to diversifying income sources, saving, investing in skills, and the transition from a survival economy to an economy of recovery. We then discussed finance as a tool for stimulating production, small businesses as a means of turning an idea into income, and co-operatives as a way to bring together small capacities and transform them into greater economic strength.
But another link is no less important. We may have a productive farmer, a capable factory, an active trader, a transport company, a financing institution and a market in need of the commodity, yet economic value may remain limited if these parties are not connected to one another. This is where the concept of value chains emerges. Put simply, a value chain is how a product moves from the initial supplier to the final consumer, passing through all the stages that add value.
The Product Does Not Create Value on Its Own
The farmer produces the crop, but cannot necessarily deliver it alone to the final consumer. Those who supply agricultural inputs, finance production, provide machinery and services, transport the crop, store it, process it, package it, market it, and deliver it to markets.
All these links create value. A strong economy therefore does not view the farmer, manufacturer or trader as separate activities, but as parts of one integrated economic system. When this system is interconnected, everyone benefits. When the links are separate and weak, one party may succeed while another loses, and a substantial portion of the value may be lost between them.
The Problem Is Not Production Alone
Sudan has extensive agricultural, livestock, and human resources and produces a wide range of crops and commodities. Yet much of the problem is that we often sell products at an early stage of the value chain. Crops leave the farm and are then sold as raw materials. Livestock may leave the country without fully using the processing stages associated with them. Food products may reach the market without sufficient packaging or processing. Likewise, handicrafts and household products may remain confined to small markets despite their potential to reach wider ones.
In this way, major opportunities for added value, employment and income are lost. The problem is not always that we fail to produce, but that we do not obtain the full economic value that our production could generate.
Added Value Begins After Production
Assume a farmer produces a particular crop. If the farmer sells the crop immediately after harvest, they receive a certain value. But if it can be cleaned, sorted, dried, stored, packaged, processed and marketed, its economic value increases at every stage.
Alongside the commodity’s rising value, new economic activities emerge: labour, transport, storage, packaging, processing, marketing, financial services, maintenance, and technology. Agriculture thus ceases to be merely crop production and becomes a broad economic system. This is the essence of value chains.
From Farm to Factory
One of the greatest challenges facing agricultural production is the weak connection between agricultural producers and industry. Farmers may produce large quantities of a particular crop, while a processing factory operates below capacity because supplies are irregular, quality is inconsistent or contracts are absent.
Conversely, a factory may need to import raw materials even though local resources exist, because those resources are not organised or do not meet the required specifications.
The solution therefore does not lie solely in increasing production, but in organising the relationship between the farmer and the factory. This relationship can begin with clear contracts, known specifications, a production schedule, and arrangements for financing, supply and receipt of the produce.
The farmer would then know what to produce, whom to sell it to and according to which specifications. The factory, meanwhile, would know the volume of supplies it could rely on. Agriculture would thereby shift from an activity heavily dependent on the passing market to part of a planned production system.
Finance Must Move Alongside the Chain
Value chains also open a new avenue for finance. Instead of viewing the farmer, factory and trader as separate files, the financier can consider the entire economic chain.
The farmer needs finance for inputs; the factory needs working capital and funding to purchase raw materials; the trader needs finance for stock; and the transporter needs finance for the service. Thus, financial needs exist at every link.
If finance is coordinated with product movement, it can become more efficient and less risky. Finance linked to production with a known market, an identified buyer, and predictable cash flows differs from finance for an activity with no clear market outlook.
Here, banks and microfinance institutions can play a greater role in financing value chains rather than financing individual units alone.
Storage Is Part of Production
In an agricultural economy, the problem does not end at harvest. Production may be abundant during a particular season, causing prices to fall sharply. Producers may then be forced to sell quickly because they need liquidity or lack storage facilities. Prices may subsequently rise when supply declines.
This cycle harms both farmers and consumers. Storage is therefore not merely a logistical service; it is part of value-chain management. Warehouses, silos, refrigeration, and collection centres can reduce waste, improve quality, extend the marketing period, and distribute production more effectively throughout the year.
Transport Connects the Links
The product may be good, and the market may exist, but inadequate transport raises costs and reduces competitiveness. The longer the journey, the higher the transport costs or the greater the proportion of damaged goods, the lower the value that reaches the final product.
Improving transport, roads and logistics services is therefore not simply an infrastructure issue; it is part of production policy itself. A successful value chain requires the product to move at the right time, at an appropriate cost and with the least possible loss.
The Market Must Come Early
A recurring problem is that production begins first, and the search for a market begins afterwards. Value chains reverse this equation:
The market must be present from the outset.
Consumer specifications must reach the producer.
Demand volume should help determine production volume.
The expected price must be incorporated into the producer’s calculations.
Production thus becomes more closely linked to demand. The objective is not merely to produce more, but to produce what can be sold, at the quality the market requires and at the time it needs it.
Small Producers Need the Chain More Than Others
Small enterprises are often the weakest when it comes to accessing markets, finance and information. Value chains can therefore represent an important opportunity for them:
A small farmer can join a production group or co-operative.
A craftsperson can work within a network of producers.
A producing household can connect to a marketing platform.
A co-operative can take responsibility for collection, storage and marketing.
In this way, the small producer does not need to own every element of the chain. It is enough to become part of a well-functioning chain.
Co-operatives Can Serve as the Link
This is where the present article connects with the previous one on co-operatives. A co-operative society can collect production, standardise specifications, provide inputs, negotiate with buyers, manage storage or marketing, and help members access finance.
It thereby moves beyond being merely an association of producers and becomes an economic link connecting producers to the market. This role can be particularly important in agricultural and rural areas, where small enterprises and small-scale producers are widespread.
Technology Shortens the Distance
Technology can make value chains more transparent and efficient. Mobile phones and digital platforms can help people obtain price information, exchange data, record orders, connect producers with buyers, and organise payments.
Data can also help financial institutions understand the movement of economic activity and assess risks more effectively. In the future, digital platforms could connect a small farmer in a remote area with a buyer or factory in another city.
This confirms that technology does not merely shorten geographical distance; it can also shorten the economic distance between the producer and the market.
Value Chains Create More Jobs
When we view a product as a chain, employment opportunities emerge that remain invisible when we look only at the production stage. A crop requires inputs, agricultural services, collection, transport, storage, processing, packaging, marketing and distribution.
Every stage requires people, enterprises and services. Developing value chains can therefore be one of the most effective ways of creating employment outside traditional jobs.
Sudan Does Not Need Merely to Export Its Resources
The real challenge in the next phase is not simply to increase exports, but to increase the value retained within the Sudanese economy before export.
Whenever we export a raw material, we leave opportunities for processing, employment, and services abroad. When we process, package, store, and market a greater proportion of the product locally, we distribute the value among more Sudanese people.
Local manufacturing, including through small and medium-sized enterprises, thus becomes part of the recovery strategy.
How Can We Build a Successful Value Chain?
Not every value chain requires a major project. It does, however, require a number of essential elements:
Organised producers capable of supplying suitable quantities and quality.
A clear market through which producers know what can be sold.
Collection, storage and transport infrastructure that reduces waste and costs.
Processing or treatment that adds value to the product.
Appropriate finance covering the needs of the different links.
Information and data to support decision-making.
Clear governance and contracts defining the rights and obligations of the parties.
Technology facilitating communication, marketing, payments and information management.
When these elements work together, the chain becomes more capable of continuity and growth.
From a Weak Chain to an Integrated Economy
Value chains can begin in sectors where Sudan has a clear advantage: agriculture and food, livestock and leather, oils, grains, vegetables and fruit, cotton, food-processing industries, handicrafts and local products, among other sectors that can link local production with manufacturing and markets.
The objective is not to build vast systems all at once. It is better to begin with specific chains in specific areas, test the model, and then develop and expand it.
From the Producer to the Economy
When the farmer is connected to the factory, the factory to the distributor, the distributor to the market, the financier to production, and the service provider to the chain, the economy begins to function differently.
Each party finds a clearer market. Every link gains an opportunity to grow. Every increase in production generates demand for other services. Economic activity is thereby transformed from a collection of scattered activities into an interconnected system.
This is the essence of genuine economic recovery. Recovery does not mean merely restoring every activity to its pre-war state. It means rebuilding the economy more efficiently and interconnectedly, with a greater capacity to create value.
From the Farm to the Future
We began this series with a matter very close to people’s daily lives: how can a household protect its income? We then moved on to saving, income diversification and skills, followed by production, finance, small businesses and co-operation.
Today, we have reached a broader idea: it is not enough for each of us to produce independently; we must connect production. The farmer needs the factory, and the factory needs the farmer. Both need finance, transport, storage, energy, technology and marketing. When these links connect, the economy’s value-generating capacity multiplies.
Sudan does not need merely to return to production. It needs to rebuild the way production moves from the land to the market. The objective is not simply to cultivate more, manufacture more or export more. It is to add greater value, create more jobs and retain a larger share of the returns within the Sudanese economy.
This is where value chains move from an economic concept to a practical instrument for recovery.
A farm alone does not create an economy, and a factory alone does not create an economy. But when the farm connects to the factory, the producer to the market, finance to production, and technology to services, scattered resources become an integrated economy.

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