https://www.radioergo.org/en/blog.php?article_id=2866
Radio Ergo 12 April, 2017 SOOL
(ERGO) - Farhiya Adan Mohamed, 35, a mother of eight children, has made an extraordinary sacrifice to keep her farm and orchard flourishing. Most of her neighbours in Ooda-gooye, six km southeast of Lasanod, have already given up and left as the drought turned this part of north-eastern Somalia into a desert.
Yet Farhiya’s five hectares are green with 70 different varieties of fruits and vegetables growing, including lemons and guava trees. The secret of course is water – and for that she pays dearly and has gone deeply into debt.
“I have thought of every possible way to save this farm that I inherited from my mother, because if the crops die it will be very hard to re-introduce them. So I am forced to take water on loan and irrigate the trees and plants,” she said.
Farhiya has been buying water from delivery trucks that visit every week to water her trees and crops every other day. She has dug holes in the ground to store water for irrigation. Each delivery of water from Wadqari stream costs her $32. She has been taking loans since January to maintain this level of irrigation.
Her orchard is producing around 200kg of lemons a month that sell in the Lasanod markets at a dollar a kilo. Her produce makes around $200 a month which keeps her family going and three children in local primary school in Lasanod.
However, Farhiya has incurred a debt so far of $3,000 with businessmen in Lasanod. She also owes the $150 monthly salary to each of her three workers.
Most of her neighbours have given up on their farms and abandoned them. Around 50 farms that used to supply fresh fruit and vegetables to markets in Lasanod and Garowe markets have stopped producing since the Ooda-gooye stream that irrigated them dried up.
Most farmers have shifted to Tuka-raq, Ari-adeye and Duhun in Sool region. Hamdi Mohamed Guureye left three weeks ago for Duhun, 18k km from Ooda-gooye.
Her two hectare farm dried up four months ago. She went to stay with her neighbours who were funded by their relatives abroad, but when she realized her debt burden was getting out of hand she decided to move.
“We were dependent on the farms for our income and the produce was sold in Lasanod market. Now the land has dried we have been forced to move and look for other means of survival,” said Hamdi, who has six children,
She has been unable to secure loans because she lacks good connections with businessmen.
“I can’t tell how long we will be in this situation, so I can’t take on loans that I cannot be certain to settle,” she said.
Hamdi’s family are being supported with food and water aid from the residents in Duhun.
