Protecting, improving and sustaining food security in rural Somalia

Objective:

To improve household food security, restore food production, and protect livestock assets.

Key partners:

• Federal Government of Somalia: Ministry of Livestock, Forestry and Range.
• Puntland: Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources; Ministry of Livestock and Animal Husbandry.
• Galmudug, Hirshabelle, Jubaland and South West States: Ministries of Agriculture and Livestock.
• Somaliland: Ministry of Agriculture Development; Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Development.
• 17 non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

Activities implemented:

• Distributed 256 tonnes of cowpea, 165 tonnes of maize, 68 tonnes of sorghum, 6 144 kg of assorted vegetable seed, 768 000 storage bags, and 51 200 hand-held tools (hoes and forked hoes) to 12 800 agropastoral and riverine households through an e-voucher scheme.
• Provided 9 100 households with livelihood support kits, which included 91 000 feed blocks and 9 100 mazzican milk storage containers (10-liter capacity).
• Provided veterinary services, including the vaccination of 11 408 578 goats against contagious caprine pleuropneumonia and the deworming of 91 000 small ruminants (sheep and goats).
• Provided 1 000 beneficiaries with coastal fisheries kits, including 40 boat kits (each containing one 5.4-m canoe and fishing gear), 60 community fish drying and processing kits (containing a processing table, drying rack, cutting boards, knives, ice boxes, scales, and cleaning kits) and 640 household fish processing and cooking kits.
• Trained 40 CAHWs on disease surveillance, treatment, and basic pharmacology through lectures, case studies, demonstrations, and fieldwork.
• Provided 77 400 hours of irrigation to 4 300 households in Kurtunwarey and Qoryooley districts.
• Trained 5 000 beneficiaries on fall armyworm (FAW) manual control methods.
• Distributed 300 pheromone traps and 50 lures for FAW control along with 1 000 informational leaflets and 102 posters in affected communities.
• Trained ten staff from the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation, South West State on FAW monitoring and control, who then trained NGO staff.
• Trained 1 280 lead farmers (of whom 550 women) and 1 280 nutrition champions (of whom 640 women) on good agricultural practices (GAP), post-harvest practices, and nutrition.
• Trained four lead trainers and 20 facilitators on the farmer field school (FFS) approach.
• Established six agropastoral field schools (APFS), sourcing two lead trainers from a previous cohort and training 12 APFS facilitators on APFS methodology and management.
• Formed four APFS groups, each comprising approximately 20 participants from local villages.
• Procured and distributed eight fodder choppers and 120 beehives and honey-processing equipment to the established APFS groups.
• Trained lead trainers and facilitators on the coastal fisher schools (CFS) approach.
• Formed three CFS groups, one in each of the project locations, benefiting 70 beneficiaries.
• Trained 70 CFS members in capture fisheries and post-harvest management practices and demonstrated the knowledge and skills of key technicians through field visits.
• Constructed fences and water troughs and installed solar panels and pumps for six water catchments and trained six water management committees on the use and maintenance of the facilities.
• Procured and distributed 14 mobile smartphones to partners in Baidoa and Quasaxdheere.

Impact:

• Contributed to restoring household food security and livelihoods thanks to the farming inputs and irrigation hours provided.
• Enabled households to increase crop yield from 1.67 tonnes/ha to 1.90 tonnes/ha.
• Contributed to an improvement in the Reduced Coping Strategy Index score from 14.8 to 4.5.
• Increased the number of animals per household from a baseline of 4.6 to 4.9.
• Improved pastoral livelihoods thanks to the provision of feed blocks and mazzican milk storage containers.
• Improved livestock body conditions through the vaccination and deworming campaign.
• Contributed to enhanced and diversified income sources and food consumption for coastal community households through the provision of fishing equipment.
• Developed community-level animal healthcare capacity through CAHW trainings.
• Contributed to the development of capacity in FAW identification, monitoring, and control for Ministry and NGO staff through data collection and trainings.
• Contributed to enhanced beneficiary awareness of FAW surveillance, monitoring and identification through the dissemination of posters and leaflets.
• Developed community-level GAP, post-harvest, and nutrition capacity through trainings.
• Ensured the continuous capacity development of beneficiaries through APFS, lead trainers, and facilitators.
• Improved six water catchments through the construction of fencing and water troughs and the installation of solar panels and pumps.
• Facilitated more effective FAW data and photograph collection through the provision of smartphones.