Recently, the new Somaliland administration has signed a $100 million agriculture project agreement to boost agriculture and food security with US based African Food Security (AFS) at QolCadey Plains, outskirts of Hargeisa, Somaliland’s capital, despite the shady AFS Agricultural project deals in Senegal that went sour. The local farmers and pastoralists communities are against the plan because of lack of consultation, but the government is planning to go ahead with the project.

Also, the Somaliland government has given permission for the Pharo Foundation, a non-profit NGO based in Nairobi to acquire a whopping 10,000 hectares of the fertile land of the Wajaale Plains in the Gabiley District in western Somaliland, against the will and without the consent of the local people or consideration for the impact on the livelihood of the communal farmers.

This blatant disregard for the input of the local people and communal farmers would only exacerbate the already tense relationship between Gabiley communities and the Somaliland administration regarding agricultural land and also minerals and gold. Two weeks ago, two people died after the police fired upon people demonstrating against a Chinese funded mining company for precious and rare metals in clashes with the indigenous people in Agabar Township.

This is another example of how big investors using NGOs or rich countries are acquiring indigenous farming land under the guise of agricultural development. For example, the Nasdaq-traded agribusiness company, African Agriculture took over a staggering 2.9 million hectares of farming land across Mauritania, Niger, and Senegal. In 2024, the company was delisted from Nasdaq when its shares fell below the $1 minimum value threshold. Now, the Senegalese farmers are still fighting to get their land back.

The Pharo Foundation and AFS  fuel land grabs for commercial farming. Pharo Foundation is saying that they would invest $21 million to develop the Wajaale Plains. They are promising to build clinics, schools and medical supplies for the local hospital in the Gabiley District.

But the Wajaale Plains smallholder farmers are upset and furious about the whole deal. They have serious concerns about the manner and how the purported Pharo agricultural investment was forced upon them. Because of that they stood up to stop the proposed project.

In 1962, the first Somali government under guidance and advice from Soviet Union experts and without the consent of the local farmers or and studies on environmental impact on the land, bulldozed the plains to make room for a hoax project to grow wheat for a pasta factory. The project failed because of a lack of sustainability and thoughtful planning.

When Somaliland people restored their independence on May 18, 1991, after a brutal war, the local people finally took back their God-given land. But in early 1997, under a gentleman’s agreement between the second Somaliland administration and the local elders, in good faith, the elders lent part of the Wajaale Plains to the military as a temporary relief program to grow corn to supplement their income, until the Somaliland government received enough budget support to pay its soldiers.

Yet up to now not only is the military still there, but they are also selling the local farmers ‘ pasture to feed their livestock for money. A pasture that generations of Wajaale farmers used for free, like the oxygen we breathe.

The Somaliland government and the Pharo Foundation should know that the Wajaale Plains belong exclusively to the local people under customary laws—who had been living there and cultivating the land for centuries before the successive Somali governments took over their land by force under the pretext of the hoax Wajaale project.

We should also not let any NGO or related dubious investors take our land under the guise of investment or development. There are dangers associated with the Pharo Foundation and AFS investment scam targeting farmers, their land, and our own security. Some investors, NGOs, and rich countries prey on countries where governance and the rule of law are weak and corruption is rife. These are places where corrupt, unscrupulous government ministers are willing to sell indigenous land for little money regardless of the outcome of their actions.

Instead, we should help and strengthen our communal farmers, make them into cooperative farming units that are more productive and resilient.  For instance,  a local community leader and farmer named Sheik Muhumad, with little support from the central government, in the 1960s, organized a successful and productive cooperative farming community comprising over 2,000 farmers. They grew citrus fruits, vegetables, corn, Sorghum, and other agricultural crops. They even exported their agricultural products to Djibouti, a similar venture should be replicated.

The government’s role should be to help farmers buy subsidised crop protection, farm machinery, fertilisers, irrigation (drip irrigation), and pumping stations. And more importantly the government should develop groundwater and marketing of their products to deliver them to the consumers. Please note that without developing water from underground aquifers, farming in the Wajaale Plains would depend on rain, which is sporadic nowadays because of climate change.

Right now, we are not doing any of those things. We are one disaster away from another drought. We import most of our staple foods, vegetables and fruits. And now, giving the Pharo Foundation access to the Wajaale Plains as an investment is a mockery.

Finally, the Somaliland leaders should take a cue from communal farmers’ wishes! The Somaliland farmers are not against foreign investment to develop sustainable agriculture or mining to help with food security and fight the abject poverty. But they have serious concerns about the manner and how the purported Pharo agricultural investment was forced upon them. There is no transparency from the government, Pharo Foundation, AFS, and no input from stakeholders—the Wajaale Plains farmers. That has to change.

* Ali-Guban Mohamed, Founder and Editor of Gubanmedia.com, covering the Horn of Africa Region.

** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media.

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