Zeyneb Dahir Mohamud

Farmer, pastoralist and shop owner

Elsame, Somaliland

Zeyneb Dahir is a farmer and pastoralist who has witnessed her livelihood depleted by the recurrent droughts affecting her village in Toghdeer region of Somaliland. "The drought has huge effects on us. It has caused us a lot of problems. It has killed our livestock and destroyed our farms. We lost the money which we used to get through selling our agricultural products," she said

Like Zeyneb, thousands of rural Somali families are facing the effects of climate change, which is threatening their lives and livelihoods, and forcing them to leave their villages. That is why the Government of Somaliland, FAO, WFP and the Government of Canada are working together on a joint project to meet the immediate food needs of vulnerable rural communities while sustainably increasing food security, strengthening resilience, and livelihoods of food-insecure families.

From a corner of her newly refurbished shop, she speaks of how FAO talked to the village elders and asked them to identify women willing to join a Farmer Field School. She volunteered and was offered agricultural training, equipment, and seeds. "Our group consists of forty women. Each woman has a kitchen garden. At the beginning, we were trained on two square meters but then each woman expanded her piece of land. Now some of them own a hectare of land. They produce and make economic progress" she said.

Since she joined the Farmer Field School Zeyneb says her life has changed for the better, and she's been able to increase the productivity and the variety of the crops she produced from her farm. "I may either buy a piece of land, buy goods for my shop, buy livestock or save it in a bank account and use it during the drought season. I have gained a lot and my family's life is uplifted," she said.

Yusuf Ahmed Hasssan

Livestock herder, farmer and beekeeper

Xaaxi, Somaliland

When Yusuf Ahmed lost his livestock to the devastating drought, he knew he needed to change how he could provide for his family urgently. "I started the beekeeping business after my livestock failed to sustain my family's needs. That is why I opted to do beekeeping business so that it would cover our family needs," He said.

Despite his best efforts, he found himself struggling to make a living out of beekeeping because the flowers were dry, he didn't know how to harvest honey properly and he didn't have the proper equipment to make the best out of his new business. "In the past, we used to burn fire under beehives and smoke the bees out. The bees used to die and they used to sting us," he said. In 2021, as a part of FAO's resilience programme in Odweyne, Yusuf joined a beekeeping and apiary management training course. The course is a part of a broader project supported by the Canadian Government that aims to increase the capacity of local productive sectors in Owdweyne District.

Now, Yusuf and 14 other beekeeping groups have been trained in this region. Over 300 families have been provided with equipment such as beehives, honey harvesting gear and water tanks for community apiaries, as well as the required skills to set up apiaries, clean honey, harvesting and processing it.

Yusuf says the training opened up a new phase in his life. He can now increase honey production and generate a profit to support his family. "Since we were trained, we produce a lot of honey and sell some in our town and some at markets in Hargeisa. We got a lot of profit," he said.

Hamda Mohamed Adan

Lecturer, University of Burco

Burco, Somaliland

As part of an FAO project that seeks to increase the food security and resilience of the populations in Burco and Odweyne Districts, experts in agriculture and resilience are supporting communities to better manage resources and improve productivity in dry and drought-prone regions. Hamda Mohamed, a Somali lecturer from Burao, provided her expertise to help farmers better manage their land's productivity during the drought through the project. "I teach two courses, dryland management and soil fertility. I currently work for an FAO project providing technical assistance and inputs to 21 villages. Nine for beekeeping, five for kitchen garden and seven for market garden," she said.

Before the training, farmers had only a basic knowledge of agricultural practices and didn't have the necessary equipment to get the best out of their land. Through the project, Hamda's expertise was paired with the provision of climate-sensitive inputs and sustainable production technologies, two key factors to ensure the project's success. "We taught them how to better manage their land and how to manage their scarce water supplies. We also trained them on how to prepare their lands for market gardens and kitchen gardens. For the beekeeping, we train them on beekeeping knowledge and also for the fodder," she said.

People like Hamda are helping food-insecure Somali communities to become more food secure and to adapt to an uncertain future affected by climate change.

Amina Osman Rooble

Farmer and livestock herder

Boodhley, Somaliland

Amina Osman lives in the village of Boodhley in Somaliland. She used to rely on a seasonal water catchment to collect rainwater for her family and her goats. The catchment dried up when the rains became less frequent, and her only lifesaving resource was taken away. "The drought has affected me personally. Our goats died and children and elderly people got weak and exposed to danger." She said.

Somaliland is facing one of the most devastating droughts in its history, and without assistance, vulnerable rural families leave their villages in search of assistance. Without regular access to safe water, herders like Amina are not able to put food on the table and provide for their families, let alone escape the vicious cycle of poverty, food insecurity, and malnutrition.

FAO, with continued support from Canada, is helping rural communities to deal with climate shocks while addressing the root causes of vulnerability in a sustainable approach. The rehabilitation of 14 water catchments in the Burco and Odweyne districts has ensured that scarce water resources go further and last longer during droughts for agropastoralists like Amina. But improving water availability serves only as the foundation for this programme's main goal: to increase the food security and resilience of these vulnerable populations, especially women, by diversifying their sources of income.

Through the Rome Based Agencies (RBA) Resilience Initiative, FAO partnered with the University of Burao to facilitate training and technical assistance for developing kitchen gardens. "We have benefited from the training FAO gave us. Especially us, the women, we have benefited. In the past, only men used to do farming, but women, we never farmed,” said Amina.

She also described how her community has benefited from the rehabilitation of water infrastructure and highlighted the positive effects of including women in the training activities on kitchen and market gardens: "The trainings we received enabled us to make use of this water catchment to benefit and progress. When we harvest, we get food for ourselves, then help our neighbors who could not farm. After that, if we still have more, we take it to the market and sell it in order to get benefits." She said.

Abdirahman Arab Abdullahi

Chairman, Alaf Organization

Beerato, Somaliland

The Prosopis Julifora is an invasive tree, which can outcompete other trees and vegetation, deplete water sources and take over large areas. Large swathes of rangeland and agricultural area have been invaded by the invasive tree in Somaliland, threatening the livelihoods of rural communities.

But if utilized well, it can be a nutritious source of animal feed when crushed and mixed with other agricultural residues such as green waste and stalks. Through the RBA project, FAO aims at controlling the invasive shrubs by crushing its pods for animal feed and its leaves and stems as firewood and charcoal. The project also aims at creating market demand for the prosopis based animal feeds among livestock farmers and fodder traders, assuring the sustainability of this approach and improving income diversification opportunities.

Abdirahman Arab, who lives in Beerato village, Odweyne, Somaliland is the chairman of a local traders association of 33 members, overseeing the store and production of prosopis products in his community. His community group uses machines provided by FAO and the Government of Canada to grind the invasive prosopis trees into new products. “We used to see the prosopis tree as useless, but now we see it as useful. Something that had never crossed our minds,” said Abdirahman. “The tree sustains many families who use its stem and branches as charcoal and firewood. Its pods are also grinded and turned to animal feed. Now, we understand how to benefit from it,” he said.

Abdriahman and his group were trained on how to manage the prosopis tree and turn the pest into a profit. “With the training and the machines, we were able to turn it into money by selling the products in the markets. We could sell each bag of feed for up to USD 12,” he said.