{"id":66672,"date":"2016-03-25T01:06:21","date_gmt":"2016-03-24T23:06:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/eu-and-fao-extend-support-to-long-term-seed-production-in-somalia\/"},"modified":"2016-03-25T01:06:21","modified_gmt":"2016-03-24T23:06:21","slug":"eu-and-fao-extend-support-to-long-term-seed-production-in-somalia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/eu-and-fao-extend-support-to-long-term-seed-production-in-somalia\/","title":{"rendered":"EU and FAO extend support to long-term seed production in Somalia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span dir=\"ltr\"> MOGADISHU, Somalia, March 24, 2016\/APO (African Press Organization)\/ &#8212; <\/span><\/p>\n<p>The European Union, the Federal Government of Somalia and the Food and Agriculture\u00a0Organization (FAO) of the United Nations today jointly launched a new project that will provide\u00a0important and much-needed support to the long-term development of Somalia\u2019s agriculture\u00a0sector.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAny farmer in the world knows the value of high-quality locally-adapted seeds. They boost\u00a0production and reduce vulnerabilities to diseases, pests and climate-related changes. Somalia is\u00a0no exception\u201d said Richard Trenchard, FAO\u2019s Representative to Somalia. For many years,<\/p>\n<p>Somali farmers have had to rely on higher cost imported seeds. \u201cThis is now changing thanks to\u00a0generous support from the European Union\u201d added Trenchard.<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cSomaseeds \u2013 Improving the genetic quality of seeds in Somalia\u201d project is receiving \u20ac2.5\u00a0million from the European Union (approximately USD2.8 million). These resources will help\u00a0ensure that Somali farmers have far better access to high-quality, locally adapted seeds each time\u00a0they plant major food crops, vital for a country in which 40% of the total population faces food\u00a0insecurity on a daily basis.<\/p>\n<p>The project builds on the successful results of two previous EU funded interventions that have\u00a0helped lay the foundations for seed sector development in Somalia. . The new project will be\u00a0implemented by FAO working in close partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture, a number of\u00a0regional Ministries of Agriculture across the country, International Centres of Excellence and the\u00a0private sector.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis project will provide an important boost to agricultural development and promote better\u00a0livelihoods in Somalia but at the same time will greatly contribute to build resilience especially\u00a0in a context progressively and constantly affected by climate change. Thanks to this project,\u00a0farmers will be able to produce seeds better adapted to local conditions, increase productivity\u00a0and access to market with products of better quality\u201d said Daria Fane, Head of the Cooperation\u00a0of the EU.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSomaseeds\u201d is a National Project that has been put in place to enhance core capacities in the\u00a0Ministries of Agriculture and farmers\u2019 organizations. The programme will build the skills needed\u00a0for plant testing, plant breeding, basic seed production and in establishing a seed certification\u00a0system that conforms to international standards. This will diversify the seed market in Somalia\u00a0\u00a0and make locally produced improved and certified seeds available to farmers. In turn this will\u00a0reduce dependency on imports and responds to both the demand of the agriculture sector and\u00a0emergency situations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe project will also put in place the requisite mechanisms for public, private sector and civil\u00a0society to form partnerships and mitigate and adapt better to the circumstances of climate\u00a0change\u201d said Richard Trenchard, FAO\u2019s Representative to Somalia.<\/p>\n<p>Two Research Stations will be developed to ensure the effective implementation of planned\u00a0activities; one in Dollow in Jubbaland and the other in Aburiin in Somaliland. Field plots for\u00a0testing seeds will be established in Jowhar and Burao.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MOGADISHU, Somalia, March 24, 2016\/APO (African Press Organization)\/ &#8212; The European Union, the Federal Government of Somalia and the Food and Agriculture\u00a0Organization (FAO) of the United Nations today jointly launched a new project that will provide\u00a0important and much-needed support to the long-term development of Somalia\u2019s agriculture\u00a0sector. \u201cAny farmer in the world knows the value of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4584],"tags":[428,4585,830],"class_list":{"0":"post-66672","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-africa-news-2","7":"tag-africa","8":"tag-apo","9":"tag-news","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66672\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}