United Nations Decade of Family Farming Regional Actions Plan for NENA Region
Prepared by: Mohamed Sallam
FAO, Yemen
Date: August 14, 2020
It is very obvious that the NENA countries are very vulnerable to climate change impacts as, they are naturally affected by harsh climate conditions, extremely high temperatures, limited groundwater and rainfall. Some countries are also witnessing instability due to long lasting conflicts resulting in severe food security situation. Supporting sustainable family farming is therefore becoming important to save lives and livelihoods as well as saving water and promote sustainable food systems.
In Yemen, the agriculture sector is the main source of income for about 73 percent of the population either directly or indirectly through the services and industries that are connected to the agricultural economy. About 87% of women are practicing agriculture activities (around 80% engaged in livestock activities). Productivity is stagnating and water availability is declining. Most farms are extremely small and household farm incomes are typically very low. Unlike most of the world, economic dependence on agriculture has been growing because of reduced opportunities in the industrial and services sectors.
Moreover, Yemen is once again stepping into a rampant and dire food insecurity situation after more than 5 years of the escalated conflict, which has damaged public and private infrastructures, destabilized the market system and prices, negatively affected employment opportunities, income sources and devastated livelihoods exposing millions of people in rural and urban areas to destitution. Yemenis are facing multiple crises, including armed conflict, displacement, risk of famine and disease outbreaks that have created the worst man-made humanitarian crisis of our time.
Impact of COVID-19 outbreak in NENA region
Since emergence of COVID-19 crisis in Yemen, casual labour opportunities continued to decrease, and household income levels are now falling to lower levels since related restrictions came into force. Although imported and locally produced food commodities are available in all markets – and all points of entry (sea and land ports) remains open – food is increasingly becoming inaccessible for vulnerable households, as prices soar.
The main areas of interventions that could efficiently build SSFF resilience and ensure sustainable livelihood during COVID-19 crisis, is to work through the following pillars.
Strengthen existing food security and agriculture monitoring, assessment and coordination mechanisms for evidence-based programming in the context of COVID-19.
Support livelihood diversification and home-based food production to increase local food availability and income opportunities.
Stabilize access to food for the most vulnerable households who are affected, or at high risk, of COVID-19 by boosting incomes and purchasing power.
Support continued functioning of local food markets and value chains by scaling up communication and awareness on COVID-19 prevention measures.
We should also realize that COVID-19 posed an unprecedented challenge to the agricultural and food sector and that COVID-19 has modified our way of doing things posing new approached and modalities of dealing with mitigation measures (thinking out of the box). One of this is the extension services. It is therefore important that new policies and approaches, especially in the development of capacity building and use of extension advisory services, with enhanced ICT as a learning platform, are to be in place to support farmers while using safety measures: smaller training groups, peer to peer information exchange, social distancing, sanitation, increased use of radio and social media. It is to be noted, however, that these approaches are not cheap, and will require more financial, material and human resources.
Sustainable transition towards more sustainable agri-food systems
In a country of protracted crisis, supporting family farming is becoming an important strategy to reduce dependency on food assistance. In this regard, agriculture must be an integral part of the humanitarian response to prevent dire food security situation from worsening. Investing in agricultural livelihood interventions will help food-insecure households to produce and generate much-needed and life-saving food and income and reduce their dependency on food assistance and food imports. Without scaling up agricultural livelihood support, farmers, pastoralists and fishers will continue to depend on prolonged food assistance.
Currently, farming households in Yemen lack access to inputs because of greatly reduced purchasing power and the disruption of markets in many areas. With household or small-scale family activities such as ‘poultry packages’, or ‘home gardening’ for example, conflict-affected families can produce nutritious food close to their homes and earn much-needed income with the sale of part of their products.
Enhancing the food security and livelihood conditions of vulnerable populations through integrated nutrition sensitive interventions was a good example or good practice in FAO Yemen program. For example one project, implemented in 2019\2020, targeted 1,200 households in eight districts, in Hodeida and Taiz governorates provides a good example of supporting sustainable family farming. The project distributed 7,320 kg of assorted vegetables seeds (four crop varieties of okra, onion, hot pepper and beans), 1,200 water tanks with a capacity of 5,000 liters and 1,200 drip irrigation networks covering 282 ha of land. Moreover, training sessions on topics that considered the linkage between food security and nutrition, land preparation, crop production, management and marketing and drip irrigation system management, were provided to beneficiary households. Awareness sessions, were conducted prior to the training programme, ensuring better understanding of project activities and objectives by beneficiaries. Training of Trainers (ToTs) sessions were provided to field crops and irrigation specialists from implementing partners in both governorates. FAO coordinated with implementing partners in order to ensure the training program’s quality for the beneficiaries through reviewing and approving its contents and following up on the implantation of the program in the field.
As a result of implemented activities, beneficiary households’ knowledge on nutrition, food security and crops production has considerably improved. Moreover, beneficiaries were able to make their own home gardens and cultivate highly nutritious vegetables while saving water by applying the drip irrigation network. Furthermore, vegetable yields increased due to distribution activities as well as capacity building interventions. Finally, the production per household increased, allowing them to enhance their nutrition.
Another good example of supporting family farming in Yemen while improving food security and nutrition for conflict-affected population is improving small-scale dairy value chain interventions as well as empowering women in the Yemeni dairy sector.
It is important to indicate that Yemen’s milk production only meets one-third of domestic demand, resulting in a heavy reliance on imported powdered and long-life milk. Indeed, more than 95 percent of processed dairy items are imported from abroad, making them expensive.
FAO Yemen has therefore made keeping livestock healthy and improving productivity one of its key priorities as part of the emergency response to support affected agriculture and livelihoods – in addition to food aid – that will help prevent the country slipping further towards famine.
FAO has made improving the dairy value chain one of the key components of the joint Enhanced Rural Resilience in Yemen (ERRY) programme funded by the European Union. The programme is designed to enhance the self-reliance of rural people and communities, and assist them to better cope with crises, risks and shocks. More than 1500 dairy producers in four governorates (Hudaydah, Hajjah, Lahj and Abyan) are assisted with various interventions including new and modern dairy equipment as well as training in proper food hygiene and processing.
Improving small-scale dairy value chain followed a holistic and integrated approach combining various activities such as improvement and distribution of animal feed production, animal vaccination and de-worming campaigns, distribution of improved dairy equipment, capacity building, and supporting the establishment of small-scale dairy processing units. This is the first time such a scheme has been trialed in Yemen and it is already showing promising results. Milk production was increased by between 0.5 liters and 1.5 liters per day and the animals’ weight has also been increased. Women have also been empowered by having\managing their own small-scale dairy processing units.
The project has empowered the women within two key livestock activities, traditionally under responsibility of rural women: 1) Improvement of dairy production, processing and marketing and 2) improvement of small-scale backyard sheep / goat fattening. Regarding dairy activities, women were granted with small dairy equipment, coupled with training on improving milk quality standard and improved techniques of processing traditional dairy products. All beneficiaries are women-headed households making traditional home-processed dairy products for sale in villages, in markets or for home consumption and distribution to their neighbors.
The distribution of milk equipment to women jointly with their capacity building has made a significant impact through the introduction of changes in the habits of the villages for the production and marketing of milk. The traditional rural culture is not to sell milk but only for home cunsumption and distributing the surplus to the neighbors. With intervention of the project the women are producing / collecting milk and processing Zabadi, Hakin, Cheese, Butter, Ghee for sale and marketing in villages and market places, which in turn has empowered women in getting good income that helps to improve productive households
The project has organized 25 women groups; each group composes of 15 – 20 women and a total of 375 – 500 women approximately. Among them the project has identified 5 Dairy Women Groups highly motivated grouping 100 women who started marketing their improved traditional dairy products in villages and in rural and urban markets. The income generation of households has improved where the monthly profits of some groups reached about one million YER.
It is worth mentioning that focusing on value chain development could also be considered a key to the improvement of sustainable and sound family farming practices. To do so, there is a need for a holistic approach taking into consideration understanding the root causes of the problems attached to the development of value chain practices and how value chain activities and stakeholders are interlinked to each other and to their economic, social and natural contexts. Emphasis to partnerships and close coordination so the dynamics of the system can inform the end markets.
Finally, it is also important to consider some measures to improve climate smart agriculture as an integral part of improved family farmers. These important measures could include:
Building sound agriculture information system to support evidence based interventions
Development of climate smart varieties (drought, heat, salinity, short maturity)
Better and good agricultural practices (conservation agriculture: zero till, planting date)
Diversification of crops and crop varieties (vegetables, cereals and forage crops)
Introduction of climate smart crop varieties
Enhancing traditional seed systems including community seed banks and use of local varieties
It is important to understand the strategies of farmers (shifting crops, planting dates, etc.)
Adaptation of participatory approached that empower farmers with the integration of gender perspective together with inclusiveness and equality based work modalities.
Strengthening capacity building as well as institutional capacities and effectiveness of farmers’ organizations.
Dr. Mohamed Sallam Kolaib
United Nations Decade of Family Farming Regional Actions Plan for NENA Region
Prepared by: Mohamed Sallam
FAO, Yemen
Date: August 14, 2020
It is very obvious that the NENA countries are very vulnerable to climate change impacts as, they are naturally affected by harsh climate conditions, extremely high temperatures, limited groundwater and rainfall. Some countries are also witnessing instability due to long lasting conflicts resulting in severe food security situation. Supporting sustainable family farming is therefore becoming important to save lives and livelihoods as well as saving water and promote sustainable food systems.
In Yemen, the agriculture sector is the main source of income for about 73 percent of the population either directly or indirectly through the services and industries that are connected to the agricultural economy. About 87% of women are practicing agriculture activities (around 80% engaged in livestock activities). Productivity is stagnating and water availability is declining. Most farms are extremely small and household farm incomes are typically very low. Unlike most of the world, economic dependence on agriculture has been growing because of reduced opportunities in the industrial and services sectors.
Moreover, Yemen is once again stepping into a rampant and dire food insecurity situation after more than 5 years of the escalated conflict, which has damaged public and private infrastructures, destabilized the market system and prices, negatively affected employment opportunities, income sources and devastated livelihoods exposing millions of people in rural and urban areas to destitution. Yemenis are facing multiple crises, including armed conflict, displacement, risk of famine and disease outbreaks that have created the worst man-made humanitarian crisis of our time.
Impact of COVID-19 outbreak in NENA region
Since emergence of COVID-19 crisis in Yemen, casual labour opportunities continued to decrease, and household income levels are now falling to lower levels since related restrictions came into force. Although imported and locally produced food commodities are available in all markets – and all points of entry (sea and land ports) remains open – food is increasingly becoming inaccessible for vulnerable households, as prices soar.
The main areas of interventions that could efficiently build SSFF resilience and ensure sustainable livelihood during COVID-19 crisis, is to work through the following pillars.
We should also realize that COVID-19 posed an unprecedented challenge to the agricultural and food sector and that COVID-19 has modified our way of doing things posing new approached and modalities of dealing with mitigation measures (thinking out of the box). One of this is the extension services. It is therefore important that new policies and approaches, especially in the development of capacity building and use of extension advisory services, with enhanced ICT as a learning platform, are to be in place to support farmers while using safety measures: smaller training groups, peer to peer information exchange, social distancing, sanitation, increased use of radio and social media. It is to be noted, however, that these approaches are not cheap, and will require more financial, material and human resources.
Sustainable transition towards more sustainable agri-food systems
In a country of protracted crisis, supporting family farming is becoming an important strategy to reduce dependency on food assistance. In this regard, agriculture must be an integral part of the humanitarian response to prevent dire food security situation from worsening. Investing in agricultural livelihood interventions will help food-insecure households to produce and generate much-needed and life-saving food and income and reduce their dependency on food assistance and food imports. Without scaling up agricultural livelihood support, farmers, pastoralists and fishers will continue to depend on prolonged food assistance.
Currently, farming households in Yemen lack access to inputs because of greatly reduced purchasing power and the disruption of markets in many areas. With household or small-scale family activities such as ‘poultry packages’, or ‘home gardening’ for example, conflict-affected families can produce nutritious food close to their homes and earn much-needed income with the sale of part of their products.
Enhancing the food security and livelihood conditions of vulnerable populations through integrated nutrition sensitive interventions was a good example or good practice in FAO Yemen program. For example one project, implemented in 2019\2020, targeted 1,200 households in eight districts, in Hodeida and Taiz governorates provides a good example of supporting sustainable family farming. The project distributed 7,320 kg of assorted vegetables seeds (four crop varieties of okra, onion, hot pepper and beans), 1,200 water tanks with a capacity of 5,000 liters and 1,200 drip irrigation networks covering 282 ha of land. Moreover, training sessions on topics that considered the linkage between food security and nutrition, land preparation, crop production, management and marketing and drip irrigation system management, were provided to beneficiary households. Awareness sessions, were conducted prior to the training programme, ensuring better understanding of project activities and objectives by beneficiaries. Training of Trainers (ToTs) sessions were provided to field crops and irrigation specialists from implementing partners in both governorates. FAO coordinated with implementing partners in order to ensure the training program’s quality for the beneficiaries through reviewing and approving its contents and following up on the implantation of the program in the field.
As a result of implemented activities, beneficiary households’ knowledge on nutrition, food security and crops production has considerably improved. Moreover, beneficiaries were able to make their own home gardens and cultivate highly nutritious vegetables while saving water by applying the drip irrigation network. Furthermore, vegetable yields increased due to distribution activities as well as capacity building interventions. Finally, the production per household increased, allowing them to enhance their nutrition.
Another good example of supporting family farming in Yemen while improving food security and nutrition for conflict-affected population is improving small-scale dairy value chain interventions as well as empowering women in the Yemeni dairy sector.
It is important to indicate that Yemen’s milk production only meets one-third of domestic demand, resulting in a heavy reliance on imported powdered and long-life milk. Indeed, more than 95 percent of processed dairy items are imported from abroad, making them expensive.
FAO Yemen has therefore made keeping livestock healthy and improving productivity one of its key priorities as part of the emergency response to support affected agriculture and livelihoods – in addition to food aid – that will help prevent the country slipping further towards famine.
FAO has made improving the dairy value chain one of the key components of the joint Enhanced Rural Resilience in Yemen (ERRY) programme funded by the European Union. The programme is designed to enhance the self-reliance of rural people and communities, and assist them to better cope with crises, risks and shocks. More than 1500 dairy producers in four governorates (Hudaydah, Hajjah, Lahj and Abyan) are assisted with various interventions including new and modern dairy equipment as well as training in proper food hygiene and processing.
Improving small-scale dairy value chain followed a holistic and integrated approach combining various activities such as improvement and distribution of animal feed production, animal vaccination and de-worming campaigns, distribution of improved dairy equipment, capacity building, and supporting the establishment of small-scale dairy processing units. This is the first time such a scheme has been trialed in Yemen and it is already showing promising results. Milk production was increased by between 0.5 liters and 1.5 liters per day and the animals’ weight has also been increased. Women have also been empowered by having\managing their own small-scale dairy processing units.
The project has empowered the women within two key livestock activities, traditionally under responsibility of rural women: 1) Improvement of dairy production, processing and marketing and 2) improvement of small-scale backyard sheep / goat fattening. Regarding dairy activities, women were granted with small dairy equipment, coupled with training on improving milk quality standard and improved techniques of processing traditional dairy products. All beneficiaries are women-headed households making traditional home-processed dairy products for sale in villages, in markets or for home consumption and distribution to their neighbors.
The distribution of milk equipment to women jointly with their capacity building has made a significant impact through the introduction of changes in the habits of the villages for the production and marketing of milk. The traditional rural culture is not to sell milk but only for home cunsumption and distributing the surplus to the neighbors. With intervention of the project the women are producing / collecting milk and processing Zabadi, Hakin, Cheese, Butter, Ghee for sale and marketing in villages and market places, which in turn has empowered women in getting good income that helps to improve productive households
The project has organized 25 women groups; each group composes of 15 – 20 women and a total of 375 – 500 women approximately. Among them the project has identified 5 Dairy Women Groups highly motivated grouping 100 women who started marketing their improved traditional dairy products in villages and in rural and urban markets. The income generation of households has improved where the monthly profits of some groups reached about one million YER.
It is worth mentioning that focusing on value chain development could also be considered a key to the improvement of sustainable and sound family farming practices. To do so, there is a need for a holistic approach taking into consideration understanding the root causes of the problems attached to the development of value chain practices and how value chain activities and stakeholders are interlinked to each other and to their economic, social and natural contexts. Emphasis to partnerships and close coordination so the dynamics of the system can inform the end markets.
Finally, it is also important to consider some measures to improve climate smart agriculture as an integral part of improved family farmers. These important measures could include: