OMDURMAN, Sudan ¨C Farmers across Sudan say the hike in global fuel and fertilizer costs resulting from the Iran conflict will force them to cut back on planting this summer, restricting food production in a country where war has caused acute hunger.

Eight farmers from different parts of Sudan, as well as experts working in the sector, said that fuel and fertilizer price increases would compound problems caused by a civil war, hitting staple domestic crops such as sorghum and millet, as well as exports like ?sesame.

Sudan is particularly vulnerable to the fallout from the Iran crisis as it relies on the Persian Gulf for more than half of its fertilizer needs, according to U.N. ?data, while ?the war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has left it entirely dependent on fuel imports.

The country is ?also already at the forefront of a looming global food crisis at a time of shrinking aid budgets. About 19.5 million people, more than 40% of the population, are facing crisis levels of hunger, with some areas at risk of famine, according to a U.N.-backed monitor.

Sudan¡¯s agricultural potential has drawn interest from Gulf investors, but the sector has ?been hampered by decades of mismanagement and war. About two-thirds of the population depend on farming for their livelihoods.

The regional war has added ¡°salt to the wound,¡± said Sadig Elamin, the U.N. Food ?and Agriculture Organization¡¯s senior food security analyst in Sudan, warning that overall production could fall by ¡°not less than 40%.¡±

A sustained shock risks worsening hunger ¡°well beyond the current food crisis,¡± the U.N.¡¯s humanitarian office said this month.

After more than three years of war in Sudan, the army has control of central ?and eastern regions, while the RSF has solidified its control of ?Darfur in the west. The two sides are fighting over the vast Kordofan region that lies between, crucial to agriculture.

For farmers in southern Omdurman¡¯s Jamuia program, this planting season should have been promising, after the RSF, blamed for damaging irrigation ditches and ?water pumps, was driven from the area ?adjoining the capital Khartoum a year ago.

Now, however, farmers face fertilizer prices up 67% year-on-year, and prices for ?fuel ¡ª including diesel used in irrigation pumps ¡ª have more than doubled, according to national surveys.

¡°At that price, we don¡¯t make a profit, you spend ?your whole profit on the ?diesel,¡± said one farmer, Bashir Ismail.

Only 500 out of a total of 10,000 feddans (4,200 hectares) have been planted about halfway into the planting season, said Omar al-Ebeid, secretary for the program¡¯s farmers¡¯ committee.

Meanwhile, farmers complain that the army-aligned government, with its budget diminished in favor of the...