IMPROVING DIVERSIFIED LIVELIHOODS THROUGH FENCING FARMS AND FARM INPUT DITRIBUTION FOR QOQQOD VILLGE

By Deegaan Bile Hirshabelle Project with Qodqod Community

Using a participatory community consultation process, Qodqod community prioritized the fencing of five productive farms and farm input. Farming is rarely practiced in the district of Mataban, yet, the few available farms are successful source of alternative livelihoods. This intervention will address the climate change effect that forces communities to get living at any cost, some which deteriorate the widening climate change induced suffering.

Qodqod is a community under Mataban District with a large population size of approximately five hundred fifty-three households. It is 24 kilometers southeast of Mataban and 36 kilometers southwest of Guriceel town. Most public infrastructure services in not in place and those which are already there like the health post are not operational. The village is home to pastoralists and rain fed small scale farmers with dockets of livestock. The source of water is a borehole. Some families have pipes connected to this borehole, and they use the water for domestic and farm use. Cutting trees is prohibited from both people from within the area and outside.

Qodqod community has shown great interest in participating in the Deegaan Bile Hirshabelle project through matching grant, which supplements the funds raised by the community at a set ratio. For the matching grant with Deegaan Bile project, Qodqod community proposed fencing and inputs of five productive farms which are source of livelihoods for the owners and other families who share crop. The fencing is expected to improve protection of the farms from livestock attracted to the grass in the farm in during dry spells causing great loss of investment to the farmers. The input will include new seeds that that are environment-friendly and economically marketable for the small-scale farmers. The investment will benefit not only the selected target farmers but wide communities who will have access to the product at an affordable price without travelling outside their village, hence collaboration will be improved in the buying and selling of the products. The matching grant ratio will be 1 to 4. The community contribution expected is $10,000 ( $2,000 per farm) with the project matching $40,000. The total cost of the community project will be $50,000.

The fencing of the five farms and other inputs were identified as a priority project through inclusive Community Based Planning (CBP) conducted in Qodqod in April 2023. This process was government-led, and community-owned bringing together representatives from different socioeconomic groups in the community to jointly assess their location including mapping resources, understanding the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to the community, and to identify the priorities of the community.

Thank you for contributing towards improving livelihoods of farmers in Qoqod through fencing of the farms and input that protects farm products and introduced new seeds for farming.