Improving the Agronomics and Economics of Cereal Production in Somalia’s Lower Shebelle Riverine Region

Abstract

While agriculture remains Somalia’s main economic driver, hunger abounds. In this thesis, the dynamics of Somali food security are explored through historic trends in domestic cereal production, imports, aid, and population. The results of on-farm maize trials, which compared an improved maize cropping system with a traditional farming system employed in the Lower Shebelle region, are also discussed. In these trials, improved system maize yields were 70% greater in the 2014 Gu season and 124% greater in the 2014/15 Deyr season than the traditional system. In the 2014/15 Deyr season, the improved system was also 142% more profitable. When Sesame production in the region was investigated, variety proved to be the primary yield determinate during the 2016 Hagai and 2016/17 Deyr season, with the Local variety performing especially well. Together, these trials are among the first agricultural investigations to take place in Somalia in over a quarter century.