Due to the critical food insecurity situation affecting Somalia, farmers and agro-pastoralists struggle to produce sufficient crops to cover their daily food needs. They are also unable to use their production as a source of income at the markets since the productions decreased up to 65% in the last months.
In the Garabahaarey District, located in the Gedo region in Southern Somalia, ACTED intervened for 5 months providing 3,500 vulnerable households with agricultural incomes. This was made possible with the support of the Somali Humanitarian Fund in response to the numerous drought episodes occurring in the country.
In the Garabahaarey district, humanitarian needs assessments have reported 56% of the households as female-headed, 35% of the households having pregnant or lactating women and 9% housing persons with disabilities. These highly vulnerable groups suffer particularly from food shortage and marginalization, while the area also hosts more and more displaced agro-pastoralists in search for security, water and pasture across the region. Somalia not being spared by the social-economic consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, 32% of assessed households have reported having to borrow food and money and at least 6 5% cannot meet their daily needs and often have to reduce their meals to cope with the lack of resources and difficulty to access appropriate feeding solutions.
In preparation for the Deyr season, the rainfall Somali season that usually happens between October and December, 3,500 households from Garabahaarey were provided with a variety of cereal and legume seeds, a hoe and a forked hoe. These distributions of new seeds aim at strengthening rural families severely impacted by several acute drought episodes and a devastating locust infestation, so they can slowly start restoring their stocks and crops.
Amina Abdi resides in Hashi-wer village in the Garbaharey district with her three children and her husband where they have a farm as their main source of food and income. However, the acute drought season affecting the region and the lack of alternative, like water-tanks and mitigation and preventive solutions, to fight against climate shocks did not spare her family. For instance, she reported a lack of water tanks. Thus, as a low-income agricultural household, Amina’s family became part of the beneficiaries and was provided with seeds and tools in preparation of the next Deyr season in a few months.
‘‘I’m grateful for the ACTED’s support for providing farm inputs during this time and we as a community are sending alert to all humanitarian actors to try and do some interventions during this hardship time ’’.
ACTED’s approach was to enable the drought-affected households to optimize their preparedness and resilience by supporting their agricultural activity and their food independence.