For Djibouti's desert farmers, resilience drives them on
By MARTIN KARIMI
October 9, 2012 at 15:20
* The last time Djibouti received normal rainfall was six years ago.
Today, a light shower causes jubilation. School children dash out of
classes, people flock in the streets; just to feel the cooling effect of
rain drops on their faces.
On a good day, Djibouti's weather is harsh. Temperatures average at around
35 degrees Celsius climbing up to 50 degrees in the 'hot' months.
Successive droughts and failed rains have seen the number of livestock
dwindle. Many nomadic herders who traverse the desert have since lost most
of their animals resorting to a sedentary life near urban centres. New
settlements are cropping up around towns and along the trunk road to
Ethiopia.
Already, about 80 per cent of the country's population lives in the capital,
Djibouti city. Yet more and more people continue to enter the city in search
of a living.
The city offers little economic opportunities. Unemployment is high and the
vast majority of the population is poor.
Prior to the civil war in the early 1990s, numerous gardens dotted the
outskirts of the capital. Most farming associations collapsed because of the
war, and as the city grew, the space for gardens was instead used for
buildings.
Lush garden
Despite the end of most city gardens, outside the city, and in the desert,
some gardens are thriving. In Dikhil village, 120 kilometres southwest of
Djibouti city, Djama Guedi is one of many farmers who produce crops for a
living. His lush garden teeming with workers is in huge contrast to the
surrounding rocky hills.
"I grow onions, dates, watermelon, and fodder for goats which I rear for
milk," says Djama. "I sell my produce to grocery shops in the city."
Djama admits that the climate and the rocky terrains in Djibouti limit
large-scale agriculture, but is adamant that farming is possible.
"All we need is the skill and technology to enable us to dig and pump
water."
In Abaitou, 10 kilometres southwest of Dikhil, Ali Mohamed Guelleh spent 13
years clearing rocks off his piece of land which is on a steep slope.
"I transformed this hill one stone at a time; I levelled the ground, then
dug a well and fitted it with a water pump," he says.
Every garden in Djibouti has a hand-dug well. There is no other source of
water. Depending on the amount of rock in the way, a well that is 15 to 25
metres deep can take 20 people, three to four months to dig - a costly
affair.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, there are 1,600 small gardens in
Djibouti each measuring about half a hectare. Each year, these gardens
produce an average of 6,000 tonnes of fruits and vegetable, most of it is
consumed in the capital. About 90 per cent of food eaten in Djibouti is
imported.
The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) is supporting up to 800 of
these gardens across the country, mainly by providing seeds, tools, training
and water pumps for irrigating the crops.
"The main goal is not to facilitate production for export but to help
families in the rural areas become self sufficient and food secure," says
Dany Lanoe, FAO's Emergency Operations Coordinator in Djibouti.
Ending food insecurity
In order to better manage the scarce water, the European Commission together
with the FAO is in the process of introducing drip kits, a more efficient
method of irrigation.
Djibouti's gardens are just one of the many community-based solutions aimed
at ending food insecurity in the Horn of Africa. The European Commission is
spearheading a Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) programme in the Horn of Africa
which prepares people to better cope with effects of external shocks such as
droughts.
"The logic of DRR is to showcase good practices that can be replicated in
order to build the resilience of people at risk. In Djibouti, community
gardening is one of the good practices that should be imitated and factored
into the agriculture policy," says Sylvie Montembault, the coordinator of
the DRR programme.
The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) is now coordinating a
'resilience platform' aimed at ending vulnerability to droughts in the Horn
of Africa, following the 2011 crisis.
"We tend to decide on things without gathering the necessary evidence and
then we apply [solutions] based on personal opinions. For this [resilience
platform], the intention is to base [our actions] on scientific evidence and
lessons learned," says Abdi Jama, Technical Advisor to IGAD.
The investments of development aid in recent years did not cushion the
poorest people in the Horn of Africa from the effects of the 2011 drought.
To prevent people falling into crisis again in the future, the resilience
platform must learn and apply working solutions such as farming the desert.
--The writer is a Programme Assistant with the Humanitarian Aid and Civil
Protection department of the European Commission (ECHO)'s office for
Central, Eastern, Southern Africa & the Indian Ocean Region
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Received on Tue Oct 09 2012 - 11:38:50 EDT
