AL-BAJA, Sudan, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) -- As dawn broke over Al-Baja village in northern Sudan's Al-Dabba locality, 50-year-old Salim Bilal gripped the trunk of a towering palm and began to climb -- his agility the product of more than three decades in the trade.
Below, workers waited to gather the bunches as they fell.
Known locally as "Hash al-Balh," the date harvest season is more than the end of an agricultural cycle for people in northern Sudan. It marks the beginning of an entire economic and social cycle, setting villages, markets, families, and workers in motion.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Sudan produced about 443,000 tons of dates in 2024 from roughly 37,100 hectares, or about 88,000 feddans, ranking seventh globally. The date palm provides food, income and employment for thousands of farmers and families along the Nile.
From high above the ground, Bilal moved carefully among the bunches of dates. He said he can harvest more than 50 palms a day, though the work has grown harder with age.
Climbers are now generally paid through a share of the harvest -- about one-seventh of the crop -- rather than a fixed wage.
Farm owner Awad Saleh, whose land holds more than 400 palm trees, expects 500 to 600 sacks this season, each weighing about 100 kg.
A sack sells for around 100,000 Sudanese pounds (about 166 U.S. dollars). Yet rising costs of fuel, electricity, labor and transportation have sharply reduced farmers' returns.
"Production costs have risen sharply, with higher fuel prices and insufficient electricity supplies, in addition to the costs of tending the palms, harvesting and transportation," Saleh said. "As a result, the farm's expected output will not cover all the costs of the season."
The numbers tell the story. Before the war erupted in April 2023, a 100-kg sack sold for around 25,000 pounds; today it fetches about 100,000. But the Sudanese pound has depreciated sharply since the conflict began, while production costs have continued to rise. The higher nominal price, in other words, has not translated into better returns for farmers.
Production has fallen too. Farmers say a feddan could yield up to 100 sacks, or 10 tons, before the war, compared with roughly 50 sacks today. Falling output, a weaker currency and rising costs of labor, irrigation, harvesting and transportation have combined to squeeze earnings from every direction.
The war has also redrawn the trade map. Before the conflict, part of the region's dates were transported from Northern State to markets in western Sudan. Saleh said the route has changed because of the fighting and road closures, making farmers more dependent on markets within the state. Transportation costs have soared, the movement of workers has been disrupted, and access to former markets has narrowed.
Yet for some families, the date palm has become an even more important source of income as other livelihoods have declined or been disrupted even more severely.
In Al-Baja, the harvest season means more than the yield from hundreds of palm trees. For a few weeks at least, it brings the village back to life and restores something of the rhythm it knew before the war.
As the sun dipped toward the horizon, Bilal was still working among the palms, with his two sons, both palm climbers themselves, climbing nearby. Below, freshly cut bunches of dates lay on the ground, waiting to be sorted and carried to market -- holding the hope of another good harvest.
For Bilal, there was another satisfaction. After more than three decades climbing these palms, he could now watch his sons working beside him, carrying on a trade that had sustained his family into another generation. ■
