Book Review : On the Experience of Islamic Agricultural Finance in Sudan: Challenges and Sustainability

To write a book on the experience of agricultural finance in a developing country, including problems and challenges, is a casual treatise in development finance in general and agricultural finance in particular. To study the experience of agricultural finance in Sudan within the period 1991-2001 is another story. The main reason behind this significance is that this period witnessed the introduction of Islamic finance in Sudan. Agriculture, having been contributing between 29% and 50% to gross domestic product or an average annual share of 48% during this period, merits special interest in how successful were the Islamic modes of finance in such a vital sector. Moreover, it is worth researching into whether the level of achievement of the financial institutions, manifested mainly in financial viability and self-sustainability, was due to the nature of Islamic financing modes or due to structural, institutional and organizational factors inherent in the Sudanese financial sector. The general conclusion of the book in this regard is that a mixture of all such factors contributed to the relatively poor performance of agricultural financing schemes during the studied period