Prof. Mahmud: Father of Sorghum in Sudan Passes Away, His Works Save Millions of Lives in And Beyond Sudan
23 February, 2014Khartoum (Sudanow) – May be only a handful of people, outside the academia and researchers in Sudan, have come to realize that this professor, Prof. Mahmud Ahmed Mahmud, who passed away this January, was the same man who gave means of living to millions of people, not only in his country but in the continent and beyond: healthy cost-effective staple food, the key words for food security that politicians are aghast to achieve.
And now people have come to realize once again, this wasn’t the work of one year: late professor Mahmud spent his whole life, improving and bettering his formula and then saw them applied in the fields, and happily consumed by ordinary people.
The loss of the father of Sorghum in Sudan remains such a chock for his family, his colleagues, and his country and beyond. After all, sorghum is the staple food for more than half Sudan's rural and semi-urban population and the only staple food for their neighbor, South Sudan and beyond.
A Sudanow reporter, Aisha Suleiman, talked with those who knew him closely and monitored what other say as well. Following are excerpts of her research:
“Someone like Prof. Mahmud, in his knowledge, good manners and patriotism, is hard to find. He was a unique school in agricultural researches. He earned the respect of all researchers and ministers. I have never before attended a funeral of a person in his stature, so I don’t know what is the most worthy tribute for him. He is bigger than all types of tributes and whatever I say about him won’t be enough. The only consolation is that all the Sudanese people have homered him wherever he arrived and farmers from all corners of the country have mourned him”, so Prof. Hassan Osman Ahmed, Director of the International Center for Agricultural Research at Dry Areas (ICARDA) Sudan, spoke about his late teacher.
The researches of late Prof. Mahmud, namely on domain of sorghum, Sudan’s number one food, have played a remarkable role in increasing the productivity of the crop, matter which caused the Sudanese people to live prosperously, particularly during the 1960s and 1970s.
In fact, his researches have become a reference for all varieties of sorghum in Sudan; hence he was nicknamed “Father of Hybrid Sorghum in Sudan”. He was also a reference for all agronomists and agricultural researchers worldwide.
Huge crowds gathered from different parts of Sudan to receive his body which was flown from the US on Jan. 27 where he died while visiting his sons who are working there. Those crowds demonstrated the pride of the Sudanese people in the late Professor.
Prof. Mahmud, who was born in 1929 in the northern state, was qualified to join the Faculty of Medicine, which then required scoring the highest points, but he preferred to study agriculture because it is the work of his people, the Sudanese people. Consequently he joined Fu’ad University, presently Cairo University. He then attained his postgraduate studies in the U.S. He was the first Sudanese national to specialize in sorghum hybridization.
He established Tuzi agricultural research station before moving it to Abu Na’ma (both in Sennar State) to operate in domains of rain-fed and irrigated agriculture. He stayed at those areas despite the hard environmental conditions and despite the death of his first wife until he moved the research program to Wad Medani in the Gezira State in early 1970s.
During this long research journey, the late professor had managed to collect the genetic sources of sorghum, sesame, groundnuts and millet. He further preserved all the local species and evaluated and classified them. He then hybridized many new varieties of sorghum such as “Wad Ahmed”, which was named after him, “Qadam al-Hamam” and others which have become famous nation-wide and in some neighboring countries such as Uganda and Kenya.
“Wad Ahmed variety” of sorghum, which was introduced by the late professor, has caused an agricultural revolution in Sudan.
To this end, Mohamed Abdalla Suleiman, a citizen from Abu Hujar area near Abu Na’ma, stated that “the people used to cultivate an old variety of sorghum which was of little productivity and the stalk of its plant was very tall making it difficult to manually harvest and impossible mechanically.”
“The productivity of five acres (feddans) of the old variety had not exceeded 30 sacks, save for in rare occasions, but the introduction of “Wad Ahmed” variety made a quantum milestone doubling the productivity, thus all the people shifted to its cultivation”, he noted, pointing out that the people used to say “if you cultivated Wad Ahmed and the rainy season was good, definitely you would be a rich person.”
Suleiman went on to say “other features of this variety are represented in the fact that it is resistant to harmful grass and the height of its stalk is reasonable, with equal heads of grain which makes it easier to harvest manually or mechanically.”
At other areas Wad Ahmed variety’s productivity was more than double, where, to this end, Mohamed Osman Subaie, Deputy Chairman of Sudan Farmers’ General Union, said in a press report that Prof. Mahmud has created a new status where Wad Ahmed variety has effected a shift from low productivity, which was not more than 4 sacks for one acre, to reach in some occasions more than 20 sacks. Additionally, the canes of Wad Ahmed variety constitute the best fodder for all animals, matter which pushed the producers to completely transform to cultivating it at both the rain-fed and irrigated sectors. This has greatly contributed to the Gross National Product (GNP) and resolution of the food issue for broad sectors of the Sudanese people.
The famous Sudanese columnist Abdulatif Al-Bouni, who also exercises farming at Gezira Scheme, eulogized the late professor, saying “The great agronomist Prof. Mahmud is the founder of the famous sorghum variety Wad Ahmed which is consumed by all the Sudanese people, whether directly by those who depend on sorghum in their food, or indirectly through animal meat or poultry, not to mention that the late Prof. was in every Ardeb (a unit of dry measure) of sorghum that Sudan had exported. I can affirm that every Sudanese who walked on the Sudanese soil during the past three decades has nutritionally benefited from the late Prof. He lived and passed away calmly, leaving his fingerprint on each inch of the Sudanese territories and everybody of the Sudanese people. He was a reference, not only for the Sudanese students, researchers and academicians, but in the entire world, namely with regard to domain of food cereals. He is a name in our life, a respectful figure and one of the builders of modern Sudan.”
The sorghum research program has developed after Prof. Mahmud moved the program to Wad Medani town in Gezira State in early 1970s where it was associated with all the regional and international organizations and centers operating in field of sorghum such as Ford Foundation and others.
Citing Prof. Mahmud's regional and international reputation, Prof. Hassan Osman said that “We do not have a reputable scholar outside Sudan like the late Prof. Mahmud, because wherever we go, researchers and agronomists ask us about him.”
He went on saying that “for instance, when we visited India, Dr. Neelamraju Ganga Prasada Rao, an Indian agronomist, who is referred to as (Father of Hybrid Sorghum in India), expressed his respect for Prof. Mahmud and described him as a prominent figure that honors science, not only in the region, but everywhere.”
The late Professor devoted himself for the service of his home land where he rejected many offers to work outside Sudan. In addition to his contribution to the introduction of new sorghum varieties together with his role in the establishment of the Agricultural Research Authority, Prof. Mahmud has written distinguished scientific books that tackled issues of low productivity in the previously mentioned crops.
He also participated in many scientific forums inside and outside Sudan besides the fact that many of his students have graduated to be prominent agronomists and continued his efforts in finding new sorghum varieties including his student Prof. Osman Al-Obaid who patented the sorghum variety “Tabat”.
Sudanow, meanwhile, visited the family of the late Prof. Mahmud where Mawada, a communication engineer and the daughter of the late Professor, said her father was a devout person and loved serving people, noting that he treated his sons and daughters like friends.
She added that her father had always been a researcher and never charged people for his researches; and avoided media because he believed he was just doing his duty which does not need propaganda.
Nevertheless, people know him through his impact on their lives.
Family members of the late Prof. cited that when he had recently visited Geddarif State as an Adviser for Siga Flour Mills concerning a project for producing bread from mixed sorghum and wheat, and on the spurr of the movment jubilant and thankful ceremonies took place. nothing more rewarding for an accademic to see that the man on the street knows him and appreciated his work.
“we have been longing to see the man who has granted us this big productivity.” One man put it.
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