{"id":2867,"date":"2019-05-06T23:09:33","date_gmt":"2019-05-06T23:09:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/?p=2867"},"modified":"2019-05-07T08:26:27","modified_gmt":"2019-05-07T08:26:27","slug":"farmers-in-garowe-count-losses-as-drought-ravages-their-farms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sooha.org\/en\/2019\/05\/06\/farmers-in-garowe-count-losses-as-drought-ravages-their-farms\/","title":{"rendered":"Farmers in Garowe count losses as drought ravages their farms"},"content":{"rendered":"

GAROWE (SoOHA) –<\/strong> Hopes of a good yield to bring a return on his more than $2,500 farm investment have been dashed for Somali farmer Ahmed Hussein Isse, after long periods of drought in his village in Garowe.<\/p>\n

Ahmed, who is assistant chief of the village of Timir, 78 km from Garowe town, saw all the tomatoes, guavas, watermelon, and pawpaw he had planted on his one and a half hectare farm\u00a0shrivel up and die.<\/p>\n

\u201cI borrowed the money to invest in my farm; I have been working on it since April last year. I used\u00a0water from\u00a0the borehole to irrigate the seeds,\u201da distraught Ahmed told Radio Ergo.<\/p>\n

The village had 28 boreholes, dug by the farmers for irrigation purposes using water pumps, but they all ran dry following persistent drought.<\/p>\n

Ahmed said the water in the village is now extremely scarce, with residents going to fetch clean water from\u00a0Yakoyako\u00a0locality 70km away. A barrel of water sells at between $3 and $4.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe villagers are drinking water\u00a0from the drying\u00a0reservoirs just 10km away from the village, where people and wild animals share the water,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Amina\u00a0Ibrahim\u00a0Nur, a mother of 11 children, lives in\u00a0Timir\u00a0village.<\/p>\n

She has been farming for the last six years.\u00a0 The crops on her farm withered away when her borehole dried up.<\/p>\n

Amina\u2019s children dropped out of school after she failed to raise school fees.<\/p>\n

She is struggling to settle a debt of $1,500 for money borrowed for the farm inputs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI no longer have the ability to raise $10 to pay for my children\u2019s fees so they are now at home. It is very difficult at this time to provide the basic needs for my family,\u201d Amina said.<\/p>\n

Another mother,\u00a0Anab\u00a0Hassan Mohamed, who has been farming for the last two decades, is counting huge loss after her guava\u00a0and lemon trees dried up due to lack of water.<\/p>\n

The family depends on farming for a living. When water was available, Anab used to earn around $300 a week from the sale of 100 kg of guavas and lemons.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, we are dependent on the rain because\u00a0the\u00a0mercy of God is always available \u2013 but everything has dried up,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Source: Radio Ergo<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GAROWE (SoOHA) – Hopes of a good yield to bring a return on his more than $2,500 farm investment have been dashed for Somali farmer Ahmed Hussein Isse, after long periods of drought in his village in Garowe. Ahmed, who is assistant chief of the village of Timir, 78 km from Garowe town, saw all …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2868,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-food-security-cluster","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t