How To Improve Land Management in Somalia

[AbdiWahab252]

The rate of land degradation in Somalia is immense. There is unabated deforestation happening on a massive scale which leads to soil erosion, reduces rainfall, cuts foliage for livestock, lowers the yield of the soil. There is also an overabundance of livestock especially goats that degrade the grazing pastures

What can be done to improve land management in Somalia ?

I propose we practice better stewardship of the land:

1. Practice more reforestation

2. Outlaw the charcoal trade

3. Reduce the number of herds to reduce stress to the pasture to allow it to recover

4. Practice better animal husbandry to manage the population of the livestock such as killing livestock in the early phase of the droughts so as to prevent overgrazing and allowing enough pasture to be saved for the remaining stock.

5. Rain Water harvesting - We should be able to store the massive rain water that floods the desert during the rainy season instead of having it seep or evaporate. It can help provide water during the dry season.

[The Nomad]

An expansion of spate irrigation should be a high priority. It's financially viable and relatively low-cost, the potential benefits are countless.

[AbdiWahab252]

Nomad,

Can you provide more info ?


Whats your view point on animal herd management ?

[The Nomad]

AW,

http://www.ileia.org/index.php?url=show ... p[a_seq]=1

Edit: Link doesn't seem to work, just copy paste it into your browser.

I believe herd numbers should be strictly regulated, rarely are large herds utilized efficiently or even capable of even utilized, so they're simply overgrazing.

[Jamac_Yare]

or you can simple doo what your ppl has being doing for decades

Kill the original inhabitants
Rape the surviving women
and
cliaim everything as your own

best land management plans

[gurey25]

simple..
plant hemp..


hemp is hardy, drought and pest resistant and improves the land.

better yet, lets eradicate the use of charcoal and encourage oil fired cookers.

the oil can come form jatropha curcus...

[AbdiWahab252]

Gurey,

What would we do with hemp ? Do animals eat it ? May be use it as feed ?


I like the oil idea.


Nomad,

Thanks, looks good. I am amazed to find that there is very little irrigation in areas that have an abundance of water especially along the two rivers and the coastal area.

[gurey25]

Gurey,

What would we do with hemp ? Do animals eat it ? May be use it as feed ?


I like the oil idea.


Nomad,

Thanks, looks good. I am amazed to find that there is very little irrigation in areas that have an abundance of water especially along the two rivers and the coastal area.

The woody part can be used to make a concrete like substance, so you have localy produced building materials
hemp seed is highly nutritous and makes excellent animal feed, especaily to poultry.

[AbdiWahab252]

Gurey,

Cool. I am sure someone is going to fib that hemp can be used to make Mary Jane

We can have our livestock graze on these hardy plants and help conserve our soil at the same time.

[Mizzy_Flame]

Gurey,

Cool. I am sure someone is going to fib that hemp can be used to make Mary Jane

We can have our livestock graze on these hardy plants and help conserve our soil at the same time.

yea me.

[gurey25]

you need a different breed to form good mary jane..

[AbdiWahab252]

Gurey,

I watched the most interesting show on Plants and how they have evolved with us. They had an interesting piece on the evolution of Mary Jane

[kambuli]

A/W,

Now you are not ugly I 100% agree with your proposal...

Keep the good work

[gurey25]

you know its indeginous the the himalayas particularaly afghanistan,
right smack in the main junction points of the silk road,

silk was not the only thing that travelled through that route.

[AbdiWahab252]

Gurey,

My love in high school was agriculture especially farming. I used to maintain a garden plot where I raised potatoes, tomatoes, onions, cowpeas, maize, and also kept some chickens too. I always assumed that I would have attended Lafoole or Egerton University in Kenya to study tropical agriculture. I was influenced greatly by my father's buddy who was a foremost Entomologist and expert on pest crops.

There are several key hurdles to improving land management in Somalia and else where:

1. Lack of land titles for the farming peasants

2. Poor access to the farming areas

3. Bad government policy like regulating food aid to prevent it being dumped on the local markets depressing the food prices.

4. Lack of Market Exchange information - In Somalia, the situation is much better than say Ethiopia because of the advance of cell phones across the nation. Farmers are better able to know the prices of crops than they did over a decade ago. They no longer get ripped off.

I am quite fascinated by the work of an Ethiopian Economist Elani Gabre Madhin and watched her show:

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/episo ... tion/5000/

Eleni Gabre-Madhin is a woman with a dream. The charismatic Ethiopian economist wants to end hunger in her famine-plagued country. But rather than relying on foreign aid or new agricultural technology, she has a truly radical plan. She has designed the nation’s first commodities exchange, which she hopes will revolutionize an ancient market system whose inefficiencies have been partly responsible for the country’s persistent food shortages.