Bulo Mareer, Somalia - It is just after 8am and Sheikh Abu Abdullahi is busy inspecting what he refers to as his latest "anti-NGO" project: workers digging new canals in Bulo Mareer, a town in Somalia's Lower Shabelle province.
The diggers have been at work since 6am, as part of a province-wide canal-building project that was launched about two and a half years ago. Al-Shabab - the al-Qaeda-linked rebel group fighting against Somalia's internationally backed government - has so far spent about $2m on the project, along with others like it in south and central Somalia, according to the group.
Three months have passed since the last drop of rain hit Bulo Mareer, but thanks to the numerous canals and waterways, the town is lush and green.
In a seven-hectare maize farm on the outskirts of this riverside town, Hussein Mohamed Ali, 66, is still in an ecstatic mood after one of the canals reached his farm a month ago. "I don't have to wait for the rains any more," he said, holding tomatoes plucked from the plants on his farm. "Before, I will have been very lucky if I had one harvest a year. Now I'm expecting at least three harvests in the next 12 months."
Kicking out the NGOs
In November 2011, in a much-criticised move, al-Shabab banned foreign non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from areas it controlled, accusing some of the organisations of "illicit activities and misconduct".
"We want our people to be free of NGOs and foreign hands. We want them to depend on each other and to stand free of outsiders," Sheikh Abu Abdullah, the al-Shabab governor of Lower Shabelle province, told Al Jazeera.
Lower Shabelle is Somalia's breadbasket. During the famine of 2011, which killed more than 250,000 people, the province was hit hard. Many people moved to camps for internally displaced persons in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
On the other side of the town is the farm of Abdi Haji Qarawi, a 47-year-old who is the father of 18 children. On one side of his 17-hectare sesame farm stand triangular heaps of sesame drying in the scorching mid-afternoon sun.
Before the banning of NGOs and the construction of the town's canals, Qarawi says he was a "beggar". "Every last week of the month we used to go to the NGOs' office to ask for food. Sometime they will tell us there was no food. It was a shameful life." Two years after deciding to return to farming, Qarawi is a happy man. "All my children go to school. I can afford to send them to study and I have surplus cash," he said with a smile.
According to data from the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the number of people in crisis in Somalia is at its lowest since famine was declared in Somalia in 2011. FAO credits average to above average rainfall, low food prices and sustained humanitarian response for the improvements.
In a statement Luca Alinovi, the head of the FAO in Somalia, told Al Jazeera: "FAO operates in Lower Shabelle… [and] works through a range of local and international organisations to reach some of the most vulnerable communities in Somalia. Currently, FAO is working in areas of Afgoye, Awdegle and Wanla Weyne in Lower Shabelle through implementing partners."
He added that the FAO has no information regarding whether al-Shabab was responsible for the improvements. FAO will not explicitly say whether they operate in al-Shabab areas.
'They killed every incentive to farm'
But farmers here see the turn of their fortunes differently. The area's newfound prosperity "is because of the NGO ban", said Mohamed Sheikh Abdi, the chairman of the Bulo Mareer farmers union. "They always brought food to the town weeks before the harvest... They bought their food from abroad and never bought from us local farmers. They killed every incentive to farm. We were hostage to the NGOs."
Restaurant owners have also benefited from the NGOs' absence. Al-Shabab offers tax exemptions and free rent to restaurants that sell only locally produced food. In every town controlled by the rebel group in the Lower Shabelle, so-called qutul wadani ("national dish") restaurants have popped up and are proving popular.
Abdirashid Xaji, 38, runs one such restaurant. It is dinnertime and the restaurateur, a father of 13, is busy giving orders to his staff. His restaurant was the first to open, but four others have since opened their doors in Bulo Mareer, a town of about 30,000 inhabitants.
"On a very quiet day, we serve 150 people. On a busy day like Fridays, we serve three times that number," he said. "We are popular because people now know the health and economic benefits of eating locally produced food. Doctors have also told them to eat local food."
Abdullahi Boru, a Horn of Africa security analyst, said al-Shabab is "attempting to kill two birds with one stone: Make people food-secure, and increase their long-term revenue base."
'Honey trap' fears
By not taxing farmers for their land but for what they produce, Boru said al-Shabab is encouraging more people to farm - which means more tax income from the increased produce. And by providing rent-free premises for restaurateurs who serve only locally sourced food, the group is maintaining the demand for local food and safeguarding their coffers, he added.
Al-Shabab's decision to ban aid organisations could also help minimise risks to the armed group's security. "Making the residents self-sufficient reduces the opportunity for relief aid - a 'honey trap' for intelligence gathering by the Western aid agencies."
Regardless of al-Shabab's motives for banning NGOs and building canals, many locals have welcomed the developments. "Before, I was a beggar. Now what I produce with my two hands in my farm is sold in the markets of Mogadishu. God sent us al-Shabab to chase [out] the NGOs," said Qarawi, the sesame farmer.
Follow Hamza Mohamed on Twitter: @Hamza_Africa
Somali farmers benefit from al-Shabab reforms
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Somali farmers benefit from al-Shabab reforms
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/featur ... 14400.html
Re: Somali farmers benefit from al-Shabab reforms
There's already a thread about this mate: viewtopic.php?f=250&t=344523
Re: Somali farmers benefit from al-Shabab reforms
These kind of social work is what poor Somalis need everywhere. When Alshabaab isn't busy banning soccer games and music, they are getting somewhere apparently.
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Re: Somali farmers benefit from al-Shabab reforms
The softer, gentler side of Alshaytaan!
Re: Somali farmers benefit from al-Shabab reforms
18 kids and 13 kids wtf. Thats the cause of starvation.
Re: Somali farmers benefit from al-Shabab reforms
Alshabaab employed this self-same strategy in many other parts of Southern Somalia and it hasn't averted the 2011 famine and hasn't led to bumper harvests. So, what gives? You can't take an isolated case and then extrapolate that to pan-Somali agricultural policy. That's just silly. Besides, Alshabaab's strategy is ideologically driven and little to do with the welfare of poor Somali farmers.
Fact: Somalia spends more on food imports today than before the civil war. This has nothing to do with food aid.
Fact: Somalia can't produce enough food to feed itself. The gap between demand and supply is filled by food aid and food imports.
In fact, the Somali Federal Government and the FAO has recently initiated food purchase program where Somali farmers become suppliers for World Food Program which in turn dispenses food aid to hungry Somalis. In other words, Somalis are feeding fellow Somalis and getting paid top dollars for it. Sounds infinitely better plan to me.
Fact: Somalia spends more on food imports today than before the civil war. This has nothing to do with food aid.
Fact: Somalia can't produce enough food to feed itself. The gap between demand and supply is filled by food aid and food imports.
In fact, the Somali Federal Government and the FAO has recently initiated food purchase program where Somali farmers become suppliers for World Food Program which in turn dispenses food aid to hungry Somalis. In other words, Somalis are feeding fellow Somalis and getting paid top dollars for it. Sounds infinitely better plan to me.
Re: Somali farmers benefit from al-Shabab reforms
Beesha Jareerweyne is growingX.Playa wrote:18 kids and 13 kids wtf. Thats the cause of starvation.

Somalia will look no different from the Congo in a few years

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Re: Somali farmers benefit from al-Shabab reforms
Food aid is used mostly to offload subsidized western farmers' food
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Re: Somali farmers benefit from al-Shabab reforms
http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/215914/icode/
This 200 metric tons of gelay didn't come from the West, wasn't produced by AS.
This 200 metric tons of gelay didn't come from the West, wasn't produced by AS.

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Re: Somali farmers benefit from al-Shabab reforms
Flowery charity designed to hijack. Deranged lunatics still. They provide irrigation for the locals but nevertheless, if they (God forbid) were to assume leadership of Somalia, their twisted agendas and foreign policies would have hell fire missiles raining on Muqdisho within a week. Building a few wells and canals for the locals won't really amount to much if your long term plan is to use them as cannon fodder for global Jihad. Fattening up the cattle for future slaughter 

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Re: Somali farmers benefit from al-Shabab reforms
Things are so bad that any little attention paid to our agricultural sector is an improvement. I think it says more about how bad it was and less about how effective alshabab is.
Re: Somali farmers benefit from al-Shabab reforms
So, Muslims do not have a choice? It's either they have to abide by what's dictated to them by gaalos, or it's hell fire missiles raining on them.GeoSeven wrote:if they (God forbid) were to assume leadership of Somalia, their twisted agendas and foreign policies would have hell fire missiles raining on Muqdisho within a week.
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Re: Somali farmers benefit from al-Shabab reforms
Of course they have a choice and I wasn't talking about the choices of Muslims in general, I specifically mentioned the Shabaab. Completely different. Stay on topic.Arabman wrote:So, Muslims do not have a choice? It's either they have to abide by what's dictated to them by gaalos, or it's hell fire missiles raining on them.GeoSeven wrote:if they (God forbid) were to assume leadership of Somalia, their twisted agendas and foreign policies would have hell fire missiles raining on Muqdisho within a week.
Re: Somali farmers benefit from al-Shabab reforms
So, you're implying Shabaab aren't Muslims? You aren't the first. OK.GeoSeven wrote:Of course they have a choice and I wasn't talking about the choices of Muslims in general, I specifically mentioned the Shabaab. Completely different. Stay on topic.
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