Asset Creation Project- PSA/WFP

 

In 2019, PSA in partnership with WFP is implementing drought recovery program – VFA project designed to allow households to meet basic food needs during this lean season, the project targets two villages of Karin and Ufayn sare in Bari region Somalia. The implementation periods will be 6 months, from February – July 2019

 

The beneficiaries will also have increased agricultural production to translating to food security including higher income generation and socioeconomic status of the community.

 

The proposed activities are be vegetable and fruits farm extension/expansion, solar panels installation in shallow wells, Water tank construction, and building of two berkets. The areas to be covered are Karin and Ufayn-Sare

 

The vulnerable households include women led families, poor families and those severely affected by drought, these are the target beneficiaries through VFA program.

 

The Expected result is to increase/diversify the target beneficiaries’ income and thus improve their access to food while increasing their independence and resilience to drought and economic shocks.

 

The objective is to provide seasonally appropriate and livelihood specific inputs to increase the productive capacity of rural livelihoods; invest in the construction of rural livelihood assets to prevent further deterioration and/or restoring households and community productive assets to build resilience to withstand future shocks.

 

The areas were selected due to the fact that, according to the GU FSNAU information and WFP internal assessments and also trend analysis by WFP VAM over the past 5 years, it has been noted to be of crisis and emergency in regard to food security, poverty index and general vulnerability.

 

The farmers in the area in dire need of assistance and support in channelling the water into their farms, currently only the farms near the water source are the one utilized for food production despite huge acreages of fertile land in the villages.

The primary intervention target is to achieve food self-sufficiency and safety-nets that will cushion farmer’s livelihoods from future weather unpredictability, also within the context of this project, in the long run the spiral effect will translate to economic growth, employment, safety nets and emergency capabilities

 

Our focus are two villages of Karin and Ufayn-Sare

  1. Karin:

Karin village is small agricultural village near the port city Bosaso, majority of the residents are crop farmers while the rest are livestock keepers, this community mainly depends on farming for their food security but they usually face the constraint of enough farming space, severe droughts and also they are always interfered by floods which completely affects their productivity and yields, the floods erodes and washes away all the fertile soil in the farms. In the farms different varieties of crops are grown, if the soil erosion problem caused by floods is not checked and control in time, we will lose this kind of production.

 

This area also has many households as IDPs; the families were displaced after most of them lost all their animals to the current drought. The mostly affected are the elderly, women and children. They have been left behind as men and boys trek long distances with animals in search of pasture.

 

The farms will create more farming fields that will translate to better and more yield creating a more food secured community among the locals and also generating income from selling the surplus of their harvest.

 

In 2019, the activities involved are:

  • Farm extension for vegetable /fruit /crop gardens

In order for the communities in the area to produce enough food for their consumption and for sale, they requested that we expand for them the farming fields and gardens, which entails clearing of the bushes and levelling of grounds, in the project, we plan to help them expand farming fields, the farm that would be created will be used by the community for several years as agreed and relevant parties.

 

  • Installing solar system Pump

Due to its affordability in maintenance and running, we plan to install solar water pump to the shallow wells for the farmers, this will enable them have enough water for their farming at all times at affordable operating cost, unlike now where they use diesel powered generators that is so expensive for them to operate making them run into losses.

 

  • Construction of water tanks

The water tanks which will act as reservoirs, will be used by farmers to store water during the day when there is enough sun for solar, then the water will be used in the evening and early morning for crops when there is no sun and in other emergency cases.

 

  • Capacity building and training

 

The farmers lack information and knowledge on efficient and resourceful methods of farming; we plan to train them on the current and profitable farm technique and methods, the training will provide experiential, skills-based education in sustainable farming, The farmers will be equipped with agricultural skills touching on assortment of best seeds and how fodder production is done and established.

  1. Ufayn-Sare:

Ufayn-Sare village is within Bosaso, it is well known for crop farming and livestock keeping. Despite having a natural stream that flows through-out the year, in the recent past farmers in the village have been experiencing low yields due to problems related to bad state of water canals due to damaged and blocked canals that needed repairing and fixing, also there was need to construct more canals to supply enough water to the new farms.

 

In 2016, WFP/PSA assisted the community in rehabilitating and extending 1.1 KM of water canals into the new farms, the project enabled the farms with crops to have reliable supply of water that eventually translated into higher yields and also as a result of the canal rehabilitation, the farms that had been abandoned resumed in farming, creating livelihood to more people and securing the locals with food supply and pasture for their animals.

 

In 2018 The community allocated community land  to the most vulnerable people in the Ufayn-sare for their farming activities, the agreement was 10 years where PSA/WFP  established two farms which average plot area was 10,000m2, also we distributed irrigation pipes and NFI’s.

 

The above intervention has enable more farmers in the area to engage more in farming activities and has translated to more yield. The subsequent result has been more food secured community and economically stable through trading the surplus from the farm produce.

 

In 2019, the activities are namely;

  • Farm extension for vegetable /fruit /crop gardens

In order for the communities in the area to produce enough food for their consumption and for sale, they requested that we expand for them the farming fields and gardens, which entails clearing of the bushes and levelling of grounds, in the project, we plan to help them expand farming fields, the farm that would be created will be used by the community for several years as agreed and relevant parties.

 

  • Construction of two Berkets (underground tank)

In order to enhance resilience of Ufayn-Sare communities, the construction of two (2) berkets will increase the resilience of chronically vulnerable pastoral by improving access to water which will be harvested during rainy season and be used during the drought, the berket will not only supply the community with water for domestic use but also improve the business in the village.

 

  • Capacity building and training

The farmers lack information and knowledge on efficient and resourceful methods of farming; we plan to train them on the current and profitable farm technique and methods, the training will provide experiential, skills-based education in sustainable farming, The farmers will be equipped with agricultural skills touching on assortment of best seeds and how fodder production is done and established.

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