(ERGO) – Aweys Hersi Dahir’s family is celebrating their first good harvest after three years of drought in northern Somalia’s Mudug region.
Aweys and 40 other local farmers in Hero-Dhagahley, 60 km west of Hobyo, were able to take their crops to market and make good sales, after having dug a series of new water wells and being given generators for pumping the water.
Aweys planted in March and harvested watermelons, sorghum, beans, tomatoes, corianders, pepper and onions in July and August. He made 11 million Somali shillings ($340) from his sales in Wisil market.
The farms in Hero-Dhagahley used to depend on 36 wells that ran totally dry due to recurring drought. They were advised by experts from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to dig new wells and were given a total of 40 generators to use among the community to pump the water.
The head of the farmers’ association, Ali Arab Gabeyr, said the group coordinate over the digging of the wells and also to fix generators when they break down. The farmers have to pay for the generator fuel themselves. They also share knowledge among the farmers, as some of them were previously pastoralists with little or no experience in farming.
Aweys, a father of 10 children, borrowed $470 to invest in his farm this year and will be able to repay the loan and still have money left for his family. Back in 2015 there was no water for the farm so he turned to his livestock in 2016, but his entire herd of 130 goats died from lack of food and water. Life became so hard that he was displaced to Wisil.
Now, back at home, he is confident that even if the coming rains fail, there will be enough water to keep the farm going. He has no plans of going back to his previous pastoralist lifestyle, as he would need a huge capital investment to restock his herd. Out of this year’s profits he is planning to put aside enough money to support the family until the next harvest.
Abdi Mohamud Jimale, another local farmer, had been depending on handouts from his relatives in Mogadishu and Galkayo for the past two years. He dug two six-metre wells to water his farm and benefited from the support of the generators. He is happy to have made an independent income. Abdi’s beans, maize, sorghum, bananas, lemons and peppers harvested in August earned him $1,800 in the market. He was able to repay the $900 loan he took to plant and is using the rest to support his family’s needs.
