Besides coffee there is a large trade in durra, the kat plant (used by the Mahommedans as a drug), ghee, cattle, mules and camels, skins and hides, ivory and gums. The import trade is largely in cotton goods, but every kind of merchandise is included.
The soil, mainly alluvial, is naturally very fertile, and wherever cultivated yields abundant crops, durra being the principal grain grown.
Wheat and barley were the chief crops, and another plant, perhaps identical with the durra, i.e.
White durra of excellent quality is raised.
The riverain population is largely engaged in agriculture, the chief crops cultivated being durra, barley, wheat and cotton.