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 August 2019 – January 2020.
The beneficiaries will also have increased agricultural production that translates to food security including higher income generation and paradigm shift in socioeconomic status of the community.
The proposed activities are vegetable and fruits farm extension/expansion, installation of drip irrigation. 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.
Up to the end of December, the total size of land that has been cleared and ploughed, and is ready for cultivation is 8,000M2. In addition several farm activities are in progress, this includes drip irrigation lay-out and preparation including capacity building.
In this month 200X150M2 of land in Karin and Ufayn sare were placed successfully the drip irrigation system, after finished the activities of installing drip irrigation system, the beneficiaries were trained how they use the pipes during crop cultivation in the drip pipes and the maintenance of drip pipes.
The beneficiaries at that two sites now are starting the planting of different seeds using the drip irrigation system. In Ufayn sare farm is very Hard land before the project their land was like stone, in this month of November they made tangible progress, The Farmers kept progress and continue the cultivating and planting of new seeds and maintaining the drip irrigation pipes.
More so, within the period, the beneficiaries of the project were taken through a capacity building sessions by an agronomist, the courses that were given utmost emphasis were trainings on weed and pest control, preparation of composite manure, pruning, mulching, growing trees at the edge of farms as part of fences and planting crop based on market demand and seasons.
Through the training, the farmers get to be equipped with sustainable agriculture and land management skills that helps small-holder farmers build smart agriculture skills. This in turn has led to higher crop yields, increased income and food security, and resilience to a changing climate.
Farmers in the target areas have been exposed to unpredictable rainfall, droughts, and soil degradation. A lack of diversification of agricultural practices has further increased food insecurity, all these combination of factors has necessitated the training of farmer on all pertinent issues.
