Sureedo lives on her farm in Qoordumey village, Dolow, Somalia. She grows fruits and vegetables with her family and was among the 2 500 rural farming households affected by the drought and desert locust swarms that have decimated crops and destroyed livelihoods.<\/p>\n
The ongoing drought, the invasion of the desert locust, and the global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic have had a huge impact on the country\u2019s agri-food system, contributing to food insecurity in Somalia.<\/p>\n
With the majority of the population \u2013 especially rural communities \u2013 depending on agriculture and livestock as a source of livelihood, these shocks pose a significant threat to people\u2019s lives and subsistence. Both livestock and agriculture play an important role in Somalia\u2019s economy, with the two sectors being the main sources of economic activity, employment and export in the country.<\/p>\n
Thanks to generous funding from the United Nations\u2019 Central Emergency Response Fund through the project, \u201cEmergency Livelihood Support for drought-affected rural populations in Somalia,\u201d FAO supported 4 350 affected agro\/pastoral households in Laasqoray and Dolow Districts. The project aimed to address acute food insecurity in these areas and help affected households re-engage with production activities.<\/p>\n
The project\u2019s agriculture component targeted the most vulnerable farming households in Dolow district, Gedo region. Each household received farming tools, irrigation support, storage bags and locally-adapted seed varieties that are drought tolerant.<\/p>\n
The seed kit (composed of cereal, vegetables, pulses and\/or legume seeds) were tailored to farmers\u2019 needs and traditional practices in Somalia\u2019s different agro-ecological zones. The kit enabled households to produce their own food, earn an income and use the crop residues as fodder for livestock.<\/p>\n
\u201cFAO supported us with seeds, tools, cash and even irrigation,\u201d said Sureedo at her farm in Dolow. \u201cAs you can see now, I am harvesting fruits and vegetables, and when I get home, we will cook this food,\u201d she said. \u201cThe three months cash payment I received enabled me to support my family as I waited to harvest my farm,\u201d Sureedo added.<\/p>\n
The project also helped reduce displacement among agropastoral communities by supporting them to stay productive within their rural areas. It laid the groundwork for future recovery and more resilient local agri-food systems through training on good agricultural practices among others and the provision of improved crop varieties.<\/p>\n
Through the project\u2019s livestock component, FAO reached 1 850 households in Laasqory district, Sanaag region, with 50 percent of these households headed by women.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing an anticipatory action project, we targeted the most drought-affected districts so that the communities become productive again after a cruel combination of dry conditions and swarms of desert locusts decimated crops and destroyed the livelihoods of many agropastoral communities,\u201d said Khalid Saeed, FAO Somalia Livestock Coordinator.<\/p>\n
Each household received three months of cash payments and livestock livelihood kits that included one mazzican milk container, two pieces of supplementary feed block and deworming of up to ten animals. Cash transfers were provided to help households meet their immediate needs while allowing them to get back into production and continue to feed their families.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we received this support from FAO, our animals were weak and emaciated, but through the supplementary feed blocks and deworming our livestock, their situation improved. The supplementary feed blocks increased their stamina and ability to withstand harsh conditions and the result is visible,\u201d said Ali Mohamud Farah, a pastoralist from Badhan village in Laasqoray, Somalia.<\/p>\n
For large families like Mohamud\u2019s the cash helped reduce the gaps caused by the inability to sell weak animals due to the drought. \u201cThe cash could not have come at any better time because, for me, it helped in buying many basic stuffs, which I was not able to buy before because all my animals were too weak to be sold,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
While the prolonged drought has affected most of these rural communities that rely on livestock and agriculture, the programme allowed people like Mohamud and Sureedo to strengthen their resilience and provide for their families. \u201cI would say this support gave us an edge over a biting drought accompanied by other shocks like the desert locust,\u201d said Mohamud.<\/p>\n
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Source:FAO<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sureedo lives on her farm in Qoordumey village, Dolow, Somalia. She grows fruits and vegetables with her family and was among the 2 500 rural farming households affected by the drought and desert locust swarms that have decimated crops and destroyed livelihoods. The ongoing drought, the invasion of the desert locust, and the global coronavirus […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":117,"featured_media":407757,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[81,1,6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-407756","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-articles","8":"category-local","9":"category-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/117"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407756"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":407758,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407756\/revisions\/407758"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}