Crops, milk, fish, and the occasional consumption of meat provide important contributions to their diet. Cattle play a less important role in the economy than in the neighboring floodplains, and inhabitants of this zone rely primarily on fish, crops, and wild foods for their sustenance. On the ironstone plateau, annual rainfall ranges from 950 to 1,300 mm and crops typically provide more than half of a household's total food needs. At least two crops a year are grown in this zone. Sorghum is the staple crop and is supplemented with cowpeas, maize, millet, and cassava.
Wild foods are plentiful, game is hunted, and the rivers are fished.
The green belt runs along Sudan's southwestern border. The largest ethnic group here is the Zande, who live on both sides of the border. They are agriculturists, growing two crops a year of maize, finger millet, groundnuts, sorghum, cassava, and rice. Even in the bad year of 1995, Operation Lifeline Sudan recorded crop production at 150 percent of total household needs. A large variety of other food sources, including yams, mangoes, and honey, along with fish, are also available.