Farmers in Somalia’s southern Bay region are expressing deep concern over the lack of domestic markets and their inability to export to markets elsewhere, despite the recent good harvest.
A 60-year-old woman, Amino Nur Alasow, said the deyr rainy season at the end of last year gave a sense of hope for the farmers in the region for the first time in several years of cyclical droughts and famine.
“In the past successive seasons, the rains weren’t enough to grow crops, which led to poor harvests. But the harvest is good this season, and we have enough food,” Alasow told Radio Ergo’s local reporter. She said she harvested more than 10 sacks of maize and beans from her farmland, after several years of crop failure.
Poor harvests have left people with inadequate food stocks and forced many to flee from the region, said Alasow.
Most of the farmers who are now harvesting their crops returned last year after fleeing during the 2011-2012 drought and famine.
The problem now is that the market is saturated and there is nowhere else they can sell. “The domestic market is full and everyone has brought his harvest and is getting little money. So, I will have to store my harvest at home and use it to cook for my children, because I get such little money from selling it,” she added.
