(ERGO) – New chaff-cutting machines are helping farmers in southern Somalia’s Middle Shabelle region to use locally available resources to prepare animal fodder to keep their animals fed in the dry season.
Sixty machines, provided by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), were distributed in 47 villages in the region by Banadir Livestock Professional Association (BANALPA), a local NGO partner based in Mogadishu.
Traditionally farmers open up their land to their animals to graze on the stalks after harvesting their crops. The machines ensure maximum efficiency in the use of the maize and millet stalks, which are prepared in a way that they can be stored for future use.
Ya’kub Bule Ali’s family is among 120 families in Bananey village on the outskirts of Jowhar benefiting from two machines given to the village. He learned how to use the machine and is now producing fodder for his own animals.
To get a good blend, Ali mixes stalks from maize and millet with grass to produce good quality feed for his 80 cows and goats.
“We have really benefitted from this machine. Today we have no worries about what we will feed our livestock with,” Ali told Radio Ergo.
Displaying the fodder he had prepared, Ali said such equipment would change the fortunes of livestock keepers in the area, who were losing hope after consecutive drought.
“We have only two machines in this village and they are not enough for everyone. I request that we are given more!” he said.
According to Ahmed Takow, BANALPA secretary, 700 pastoralist families in Middle Shabelle have been trained to operate the diesel-powered machines.
“There are two sizes of these machines. We have given 10 big machines to the farmers in Mahaday town, while those in Jowar town received seven small ones and 20 big ones. In Ballad town, we distributed 17 big ones and eight small ones,” he said.
The villages have formed committees to manage the use of the machines. Members include traditional elders, chiefs and their assistants in the villages.
Ali Muhumed Nohow, assistant chief of Baray, is on the committee managing a machine for use by the village populated by 870 families. Among them are 240 agro-pastoralists. Nohow explained how they share the machine.
“We have a list and those who want to chop the chaff of their crops and grass for their livestock have to register with us two days prior to the cutting. Those who registered first can use the machine first,” he said.
It takes up to two days for each user depending on the amount of fodder they have to be cut.
The farmers were given grass, millet, and maize seeds by BANALPA in December to plant to help them recover from the droughts.
Nohow, an agro-pastoralist himself, said the machines are very helpful.
“I used one of my two hectares of farmland to grow grass to feed my livestock and the rest I used for subsistence food. I have five cows and nine goats and I am now able to feed them using the fodder cut by the machine,” he said.
