El-Tom, Abdullahi and Nur El-Dayem, Osman (1995) The Informal Channels of Indigenous Tenants in Coping with the Inefficient Bureaucracy of the Gezira Scheme, Sudan. GeoJournal, 36 (1). pp. 79-85. ISSN 0343-2521

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Abstract

This paper examines the management of irrigation in the Gezira Scheme, Sudan. It focuses on the tenants' management of water at the farm level. The authors argue that despite several decades of top-down instructions, Gezira Scheme tenants still retain their indigenous agricultural calendar. The calendar contains description of weather, rain, pests and possible yields and accordingly prescribes specific agricultural activities. This gives rise to informal channels of action which often contradict official instructions. Unlike the management of the Gezira Scheme, the authors do not take the informal channels as indicative of the tenants' lack of discipline, laziness or ignorance. Rather, they constitute innovative and practical response to Scheme inefficiency and bureaucratic rigidity. Most importantly, the adoption of these informal channels renders agricultural operations both practical and economically viable.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	Environmental Management; Agricultural Activity; Sudan; Farm Level; Official Instruction;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Anthropology
Item ID:	11150
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00812531
Depositing User:	Dr Abdullahi El-Tom
Date Deposited:	08 Oct 2019 14:27
Journal or Publication Title:	GeoJournal
Publisher:	Springer Verlag
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	Publisher
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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