Somalia: Supporting farmers towards sustainable livelihoods

An estimated 2.5 million people live in Puntland, an autonomous region in north-eastern Somalia. The overwhelming majority of these people rely on fishing, farming and livestock for their livelihoods and the region has become a refuge for many Somalis displaced by violence in the south.

The prolonged drought of recent years and increasingly heavy monsoon winds have affected many of Somalia’s most climate vulnerable areas, including Puntland. This has led to severe water shortages, threatening livelihoods and food security, as well as causing many children to miss out on an education.

To assist drought-affected households, Islamic Relief has launched the Community Resilience Enhancement for Drought Integrated Preparedness (CREDIT) Project. The project aims to improve the living conditions of pastoralists and farmers in Puntland’s Bari and Sanaag regions.

It ensures the supply of clean water and provides a variety of agricultural inputs, such as high-quality seeds and tools, to enable effective and efficient land cultivation. To date, the project has supported over 45,000 people in the Bari and Sanaag regions and has helped strengthen Somalia’s food security.

Rehabilitating farms, supporting farmers

Warsan is among those that has benefited from the CREDIT project. Warsan is a mother of 5 children and lives in Puntland’s Kubo village, close to the city of Qardho. Warsan’s family are amongst the poorest in Kubo. She used to earn a living from cultivating the land, but her farm was destroyed by the country’s recent unrelenting period of drought.

Warsan’s sole source of income was her farm, and its destruction left her family in a perilous situation. She could not afford to feed her children nor purchase agricultural tools to get started again as a farmer.

“Before Islamic Relief Somalia’s intervention, we were not able to access agricultural tools and inputs. Our income was very low, and we were in a difficult situation,” Warsan says.