(ERGO) – A group of young farmers in Jowhar district of Middle Shabelle region is trying to revive the homegrown variety of rice, which had almost fallen out of production in Somalia.
Severe drought and water shortages in the last three years, and flooding prior to that, had forced farmers to abandon rice farming because of the poor conditions and the lack of seeds available.
However, during the gu’ season in April-June 2018, the level of the water in the major rivers, including Shabelle river, increased.
This encouraged around 200 young generation local farmers to try to revive rice production.
But only one businessman in the area, who traded in seeds and grain, had any rice seeds left in his store. He had the last 400 bags of local rice seeds left in the entire region if not the country.
Mohamed Ali Afrah, one of those behind the rice revival initiative, told Radio Ergo they bought all 400 sacks of rice seeds from the businessman and also borrowed money from him to plant 25 hectares of rice.
The first rice harvest produced 3,500 sacks of rice.
The seeds are being kept in storage and will be sold to other local farmers in Jowhar, to enable them to take up rice planting again.
The seeds in a store will be enough to plant 2,000 hectares of rice.
“When the farmers have tried to plant this local rice, it was hard to get the seeds. They are not imported like other seeds and cannot be bought from the markets. We wanted to make sure the seeds are available again locally,” Mohamed said.
Rice is an important staple food in Somalia. Imported varieties of rice had become cheaper than the local Jowhar rice on the market.
Ali Yussuf Ali, the trader, who gave the last bags of rice seeds he had in his stores, said he was happy to return to trading in rice again. For the last two years, he had been selling only sesame and maize.
The young farmers returned 300 bags of rice to him as part repayment of their loan. Ali said he has already sold some of this as seeds to other local farmers planning to return to rice farming.
One of the older farmers in Jowhar, Abdi Adam, 63, had stopped planting rice when the seeds became unavailable and switched to growing maize, beans and sesame instead. He told Radio Ergo he is now planning to resume rice production, having seen that the seeds are now available again.
The former central government of Somalia led by late Mohamed Siyad Barre started rice farms in this area in 1986 with support and seeds from the Chinese government.
