SOMALI AGRICULTURE SECTOR

The Agriculture sector is the backbone of the Somali economy. Pre-war figures indicate that this sector provided 67% of the country’s GDP. The agriculture sector has a crucial role in ensuring food security, job creation, and income generation, and foreign exchange earnings. Indeed, about 70% of the country’s population lives in rural areas and derives its livelihood from agriculture and related activities.

The agriculture sector is therefore a key in addressing poverty and food insecurity. To meet these challenges, however, Somali agriculture must be transformed from traditional production to modern commercial and competitive products and this can only be achieved through scientific research and identified the critical challenges n crop varieties, climate aspects, and farming systems. Suitable lands for agriculture in Somalia are estimated at 8.1 million ha in which 7.5 million ha are along Shabelle and Juba Rivers and the land between the two rivers.

Somalia is disposed to natural hazards, particularly drought and floods, which have led to recurrent food and nutrition crises. Food production and agriculture matter: they provide livelihoods for more people in the world than any other sector.

SONRREC provides high-quality advice to the government to strengthen the country’s food security and livelihoods and to improve the quality of public and private investment in agriculture and food systems while protecting land rights and responsibly managing natural resources.

We also seek to make food systems and value chains more resilient to climate change. Our experts support governments in developing and implementing policies and regulations that enable food systems and communities to captivate climate shocks.

See Our Identified Priorities Research areas in the Food Agriculture sector of Somalia:

1. The role of the Agriculture sector on economic growth in Somalia - A case study of all States 2. The effect of traditional storage on aflatoxin development in post-harvest maize and sorghum 3. Estimating the potential of beekeeping to alleviate householder poverty in Somali rural 4. Impact of pesticides use in Somali agricultural open field: their benefits and hazards 5. Estimation of soil degradation on agricultural productivity in Somalia 6. Effects of soil degradation on crop productivity in Somalia 7. Evaluation of introduced soybean varieties under the tropical ecosystem environment of Somalia 8. Evaluation of introduced wheat varieties under the tropical ecosystem environment of Somalia 9. Fungal infection and aflatoxin contamination in maize collected from Hirshabelle state and southwest state Somalia 10. The role of rural women farmers on the economic development of southwest state Somalia 11. The effect of climate change on agricultural productivity and economic growth in Somalia (a case study of selected farmers in Hirshabelle) 12. Risk and benefits of human consumption of raw and pasteurized cow's milk in Somalia