Postby anonymousfaarax » Thu Nov 24, 2011 7:43 am
Somali farmland offers hope amidst conflict, famine
DOLLOW, Somalia — Farmers pull up onions from the soft earth on the green banks of a river, while water gurgles down irrigation channels: an ordinary rural scene, if it were not taking place in Somalia.
A harsh drought swept the Horn of Africa this year, turning several southern Somali regions into famine zones where thousands are reported to have died, but the small farming region separated from Ethiopia by the river Dawa was spared.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) started a project last year to clear nine hectares of land -- extremely fertile, but abandoned to the wild since 1964, when Somalia and Ethiopia fought over their common border.
Now a pump gushes out water from the river, irrigating tomato plants, beans, watermelons and onions -- just a few miles from a camp for displaced people, forced to flee from the country's famine-struck regions.
"We could have died if the aid had not been given," said Hassan Arab Barre, the village chief, adding that while before the project "life was not good," he can now sell surplus crops in the local market.
"We have harvested for the past two seasons because we had a water pump but before we were not able to do so," Barre added. "The whole area was a forest but we have been digging, and now it is a farm with a good harvest."
Nor is this the only programme here: 244 similar farming projects in the southern Gedo region have been launched, benefiting 4,400 families.
It's a small pocket of relative calm from the bloody conflict elsewhere in southern Somalia, with Ethiopian forces and allied militia having driven Islamist Shebab insurgents some 40 kilometres (25 miles) to the east.
Over $800 million has been donated to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Somalia, triggered by two dry seasons and worsened by the two decades of bloody civil war.
The United Nations last week halved the number of famine zones, but warned thousands still face death in the world's worst crisis with nearly 250,000 people face imminent starvation.
But if the necessary investments had been made earlier and on a regular basis, far less money would have been needed to prevent such a disaster, following the example of Dollow, said Luca Alinovi, FOA head for Somalia.
"A dollar spent in prevention avoids six dollars spent in the response to a humanitarian crisis," said Alinovi.
Installing a water pump, for example, can be done at relatively little cost for dramatic impact, but "the dominant fact of the last 21 years in Somalia was the lack of continued investment," he says.
Images of Somalia as an arid wasteland populated by dazed refugees from hunger are by no means inevitable, according to FAO specialists.
Despite the war, Somalia this year will export 4.3 million head of livestock to Gulf states.
Before the war, Somalia was a prolific exporter of bananas, has two of the largest rivers in East Africa, the Juba and Shabelle, and the Italian colonisers left an irrigation system that could be rehabilitated.
But the ongoing war is obviously a major challenge. Al-Qaeda linked Shebab rebels are battling Kenyan forces in the south, Ugandan and Burundian African Union forces in Mogadishu, and face Ethiopian troops which reports say have crossed in from the southwest over the weekend.
"The Somali farmers will suffer because they will not be able to access their land to harvest," Alinovi said, even though current heavy rains would have otherwise helped their crops.
Dollow region, a dusty scrubland in July, is now dotted with green bushes and fresh growth, helping fatten up camels recently brought back by their owners, who left in search of grazing lands for their herds.
"So many animals died during the drought," said Ahmed Warsame, from the Association of Veterinarians in southern Somalia.
"The situation is improving day by day, but there are people who have lost all their livestock. They now need humanitarian aid to resume their business."
