Butana

Butana (Arabic البطانة ) is a steppe region east of the Nile in Sudan.

Geography

Butana is limited by the main stream of the Nile in the north and the two originating from the Ethiopian highlands Atbara tributaries to the east and the Blue Nile in the west. The of the mentioned rivers nearly enclosed region is also called "Island of Meroe ".

In the western part the granite base of sandstone layers and places of rock remains of ancient river deposits is covered. Further east is a zerlappter at the edges sandstone base layer steps and island mountains. The in the rainy season briefly filled Wadi runs reach nowhere the Nile; numerous water bodies will remain activated until the winter dry season and serve as cattle troughs. Regenbewässerter millet cultivation is possible, especially in the southern area of ​​the Butana. There borders large acreage on the west by the plain of Gezira and on the east by the equally fertile area around Kassala.

In the Butana are the ancient Meroe find spots, Wad ban Naqa, Naqa and Musawwarat it Sufra of the kingdom of Meroe. Until around the time of the Butana was a partially wooded savannah, there were cattle, elephants, and irrigated agriculture. Today, the area consists of acacia bush and partly desert. It can be used by nomads only during the rainy season in the summer months as pasture for camels, which serve as meat suppliers. As dairy cattle from two different nomadic peoples the Butana Cattle, a brown Zeburind bred. Most rain falls during the months of July to September. The annual rainfall is in the north near Atbara average of 100 millimeters, further south they rise to 400 millimeters. The country is too high for irrigation from the Nile.

Pasture economy

For most of the Butana area - a combination of semi-nomadic animal husbandry and agriculture is typical. The Juhayna nomads include the once dominant in the Butana Shukriya. They are in their self still nomads, distance themselves from farmers and farm workers, but now operate as agriculture. After the winter dry season are usually in April only limited grazing land available, the cattle troughs to the traditional water harvesting ( Hafir ) are exhausted, at the same time, however, the crop on the irrigated fields over, so that the cattle on harvested cotton, peanut and can graze millet fields. 1968 a project for the establishment of Shukriya area Kashm el- Girba ( Kassala and Gedaref between ) was started. An incentive for the cultivation of peanuts was also increased after 1970 the market price.

The ownership of the grazing land has changed since the 19th century. The Shukriya possessed within their sphere of influence (Arabic: dar ) the rights over pastures, water resources and agriculture in the wadis. Natural pastures were common property, only an elite of Shukriya families also had private property. The principle of communal property was secured by a system of authority, the adjustment of the surfaces on the environmental conditions and conflict mediation carried out by an elder ( Sheikh ). The British colonial power recognized in the 1925 Native Administration Act adopted this system in principle. A Land Settlement and Registration Act in the following year, however, declared a retention of title colonial state on communal land.

Until 1971 enacted legislative changes (Open Acess System) under the first socialist government of Numairi also allowed other ethnic groups free access to pasture resources. To regulate the land distribution function of the State would now have been, but not cared. In order to ensure the preservation of their own, due to general demand has now been privatized livestock, the free pasture was grazed for individual benefit, which accelerated the destruction of grazing land (degradation). The traditional authorities had no more influence on the issue of land distribution. At the same time was extended by the introduction of mechanized agriculture after the second world war in the south of the Butana to Gedaref of millet cultivation and restricted the action space of the nomads. The suitable for cattle pasture strip of land bordered to the north rainfed construction areas and is up to 70 kilometers wide in dry years. Generally, a decrease of perennial species is found in the Butana, in rainy years, further north, growing anuellen grasses lose by drying quickly their nutritional value.

The resettlement of displaced residents of Wadi Halfa to New Halfa in the midst of Butana, where it was started on irrigated land in 1960 with the cultivation of peanuts, cotton and wheat, the nomads took another pasture. In New Halfa were in 1964 about 7,000 families who had to give way to the rising Nubia Lake, located along with 20,000 families in the area and supplied with land that was supplied via channels with water of the dammed by the Khashm el- Girba Dam Atbara.

The Rahad flows below Wad Madani in the Blue Nile. At Rahad project for irrigation was built in about 1960 to 1983. It allows for the first time a well-planned combination of agriculture and animal husbandry. The destruction of the established community property principle has been recognized as a disadvantage and at times they tried to replace it with other decentralized administrative structures. The progressive soil depletion is thus not stopped.