Assessing the effects of hazards and interventions on farm household liquidity in Sudan - A preliminary accounting model

The informed assessment of the effects of hazards on farm households and th e design of appropriate interventions requires a knowledge of the pattern o f household cash and asset stocks and flows. This paper uses the example of a poor farm household in Kordofan, Sudan to build a debt/savings model and then study the effects of environmental "shocks" and different forms of in terventions. The results suggest that, in the absence of external injection in the form of technological improvement or worker remittances, over the p eriod 1988-1992, households would have descended into a debt spiral, evert with formal credit. With income improvements solvency would have only been ensured if formal credit had been available Although more work needs to be done to increase the validity of such "accounting" models of farm household liquidity, this study has established a methodology which can be improved upon and applied elsewhere.