Impact of Food aid on Local Crop Production in

Somaliland

Muse J.Essa

Development Studies, Postgraduate Program at

University of Hargeisa
2017

INTRODUCTION

Food aid today is widely – and accurately – considered an instrument for addressing Acute and
chronic food insecurity in low-income communities. Although the main food aid Programs were
not originally focused on humanitarian objectives, and despite the fact that donor country
agricultural surplus disposal, trade promotion and other motives still sharply constrain what can
be accomplished with food aid, the core intent of most food aid today is plainly to relieve
unnecessary human suffering (C. B. Barrett 2006)

In historically the primary motive of food aid has been humanitarian, i.e. to reduce famine and
suffering, but political motives have also been involved. After the Second World War food aid
became a regular feature of international development programs. For instance, under the
Marshall Plan, the USA transferred huge amounts of resources, including food aid, in particular
to Europe in order to rebuild the continent. Food aid was also used to promote major US trading
partners, to open up new markets for American products and to reduce accumulated surplus food.
While the USA was the leading food aid donor in the 1960s, the European Union (EU) was the
largest food aid donor in the 1990s. (PANE 2006)

There are three types of food aid delivery in Sub-Sahara Africa including Somaliland. Each year
Somaliland receive from the international agencies different kinds of food aid, for this food aid
are namely into three types, (a) Project Food which is food for work that is used as wage,
supplementary feeding project targeted at the group with the inadequate level of nutrition. (b)
Emergency food which food aid intended for emergency response of natural disasters like
drought, flood or earthquake and displaced people. (c) Program food aid; this kind of food aid
primarily provides budget and/ or balance of payment support. Food aid, in this case, is not
intended to compete with commercial imports, but experience has shown that commercial
imports have actually been replaced. (PANE 2006)

However, the foreign aid has a long track evidence and it’s hard to summarize briefly due to
many related issue, as the theory of food aid program was seems as general it is about provided
food and related assistance to tackle hunger, either in emergency situation, or to help with
deeper, longer-term hunger alleviation and achieve food security in where people do not have in
hunger or in fear of starvations and also to improve their lives and raise people our poverty,
leading to sustainable growth and development (Reilly 2009)

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Crop farming is currently the second most important economic activity in the country, after livestock, with up
to 20-25% of the population depending on it for their livelihoods. Crop
agriculture is currently an underdeveloped and offers considerable potential, both in cereal and Horticultural
production.
The production system is predominantly subsistence in nature. The principal crops are sorghum
and maize grown for household level consumption, and fruit and vegetables farming, mainly for sale.
Dominant horticultural crops include tomatoes, lettuce, onions, peppers, cabbages, oranges lemons, and
papaya.
Rain-fed farming accounts for 90% of the total area cultivated, while the area under irrigation constitutes only
10%. The sector is dominated by smallholder farmers who tend small farms ranging from 2 to 30 hectares in
area. The size of the average farm is just about 4 hectares (The Somaliland champers of commerce n.d.)

However, last decade their situation of cultivating on the land has totally changed for disincentive effects of
food aid on domestic agricultural production may Result from farm level responses to price reduction caused
by increased food Supplies (Clark 2001), In Somaliland, it clears how food aid could potentially impact local
small farmer’s crop production. The last three consecutive years according to Somaliland national in figure
(Figure 2015), in 2013 local farmers produced 12,245 tons of maize, in 2014, 10,447 tons of maize and finally
2015 498 tons of Maize were produced, this shows level of the maize production has decreased year after
years, although last year there was low rainfall in the country, however, the food aid distribution has greatly
influenced the local crop production in Somaliland and also this shows for example that communities
produced small quantities of maize which affected by food aid differently relative to communities that produce
large quantities of sorghum.

Research Objective
The main objective of this research paper to analyze how the food aid impacts the local crop
production in Somaliland

Research question
 How does food aid impact on domestic production?
 How does food aid affect the local domestic investment in agriculture sectors?
 How does food aid create dependency and what is the main impact on the household
Creativity?
Methodology

To explore the main impact of the food aid on the local agriculture production and to simplify
the main challenges faced by the recipient country, this study based on conceptual and empirical
evidence about the impact of food aid on local crop production, the study use secondary data
from different articles published and unpublished, journal, research papers and books.

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Overview

Crop farming is currently the second most important economic activity in the Somaliland, after
livestock, with up to 20-25% of the population depending on it for their livelihoods. Crop
agriculture is currently an underdeveloped and offers considerable potential, both in cereal and
horticultural production. (The Somaliland champer of commerce n.d.)

The maize and sorghum are principle crop production of Somaliland by the majority of
smallholder farmers largely depend on, after harvesting the maize and sorghum, the farming
households normally store their required food for own consumption and any surplus is sold into
the market as income generation. (IBID)
Mainly the local farmers depend on the rainy water irrigation and Gu season, it’s only time farm
owners of irrigated farms make good profits especially local farmers who supply to the vegetable
and fruit market although is low in the dry seasons.( IBID)
According to Somaliland food and water security strategies, it will provide the framework by
which the government facilitates in a comprehensive and coordinated manner; this strategies
action will improve and ensure adequate food and water supply for the people of Somaliland. It
will be the roadmap for bolstering the productive sectors of the country as a means of
contributing to the sustainable economic development and a food and water secure citizenry that
will able to live longer and work productively. (Development 2012)

Key Findings for Impact of food aid

A number of analytical tools and debates have been used by different research to study the
impact of food aid on agriculture production, however food aid advocates have argued that food
can benefit the recipient economic in many, and they broadly stated food aid can (1) augment
available resources to foster growth and development (2) improve the nutrition and health of
disadvantaged groups (through supplementary feeding program) (3) reduce inequality in income
distribution by generating them access to food at concessional process (4)provide food to
vulnerable group in emergency situation (emergency food aid) and more recently (5) furnish
multilateral lending organization which affected instrument (food for adjustment ) to support
economic policy reforms( structural adjustment programs, balance of payments adjustment
program, and market restricting programs ) and to protect the poor from hardships imposed by
such reforms. (Y.Hossein Jan 1991)
Another side of the debate of the impact of food aid on the agriculture production in receipt
country, it is explained that food aid potential to harm the recipient economy country. It can do
so particularly through (1) having disincentive effects on local food producers and on the
government’s policy priority for increasing domestic food production.(2) distorting local
consumers’ food consumption habits and creating food aid dependency and (3) undermining the
government’s fiscal effort to mobilize domestic resources for economic development (IBID)

According to two debates, the food aid has a positive and negative impact on the local
production farmers or recipient countries, however, the main argument is the level of the food
aid has positively affected for the poverty alleviation and food security of the underdeveloped
country. In different kinds of literature shows disincentive effects of food aid on domestic

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agriculture production in recipient country which may result from farm level responses to price
reduction caused by increase food aid supplies in the market (Clark 2001)

In Somaliland, it clears how food aid could potentially impact local small farmer’s crop
production. The last three consecutive years according to Somaliland national in figure (2015), in
2013 local farmers produced 12,245 tons of maize, in 2014, 10,447 tons of maize and finally
2015 498 tons of Maize were produced, this shows level of the maize production has decreased
year after years, although last year there was low rainfall in the country, however, the food aid
distribution has greatly influenced the local crop production in Somaliland and also this shows
for example that communities produced small quantities of maize which affected by food aid
differently relative to communities that produce large quantities of sorghum. (Figure 2015)

Local farmer productively has changed according to the Somaliland in Figure clearly shows
there is decline of crop production in last three years, although the climate change in the world
can be seen has also affected in Somaliland, the decline can be described recurrent of drought
and food aid distribution in the market during the harvest time of local farmers.
The longstanding concern about the food price effects of food aid deliveries—which date at least
from (Schultz 1960) have been corroborated empirically in several cases in sub-Saharan Africa
in recent years (Barrett 2005), (Donovan 1999)1, These concerns are echoed at the household
level where concern is raised that the receipt of food aid causes households to reduce their labor
supply, discourages household investment in agricultural production, and crowds out private
transfers and other means of informal responses to shocks.

The low investment of the household has resulted in decline of the local crop productivity and
this have discourages the farmers to produce more crop per years, there is Special concerns have
been voiced about the labor market effects of ill-conceived food-for-work (FFW) projects, which
may distort local labor markets by attracting workers away from vital activities during the
agricultural year, especially if the wages offered under FFW, are at or above prevailing market
wage rates (Maxwell 1979) Further, critics assert, food aid permits recipient country
governments to continue to neglect the needs of their agricultural sectors for adequate rural
infrastructure, agricultural research, and extension, as well as price and trade policies that are not
biased against agriculture.

There is information from WFP (2005) shows that between 1990 and 2003, 67% of total
Food aid supplied to Swaziland came in the form of direct transfers. Regional (Triangular)
purchases amounted to 17% whilst only 16% was procured from Local suppliers. The argument
normally made by donor agencies in justifying these statistics is that local supplies are
expensive; hence they find it appropriate to buy from cheaper external sources (Dradri &
Mukeere 2006) By doing so, donors are able to cover a larger number of beneficiaries in a
targeted community, likewise at the Harvesting time in local farmers of Somaliland, the WFP
deliberately distribute food aid which is mostly same as local crop production such as Maize, and
discouraged the local farmers to produce enough crop in the next years by decreasing their
agriculture investment.

1Donovan, C., Myers, R., Tschirley, D., & Weber, M. (1999). The effects of food aid on maize prices in
Mozambique. In G. H.
Peters & J. von Braun (Eds.), Food security, diversification and resource management: Refocusing the
role of agriculture? 4
Proceedings of the twenty-third international conference of agricultural economists. Brookfield, VT:
Ashgate.
Very large quantities of food aid are released directly into countries with markets that operate
with similar locally produced products; and Poor commodity targeting is implemented, such that
the food aid commodities given to households are likely to be exchanged in markets, particularly
when that commodity has a local substitute and increased market supplies lower prices for the
locally produced substitute

The disincentive effects may result from targeted food aid for various reasons, the poor may
receive more food aid than they need and sell the excess on the local market. Alternatively,
targeted food aid, although intended only for the poor may be distributed to the non-poor who
otherwise would have purchased or grown food, the un-needy recipients who accept free food
will decrease their purchase of food from local markets, resulting in a decrease in food demand
and loss of sales for local producers. The disincentive to the staple food producer is very real and
may cause local farmers to move other activities than food production as the market shrinks
((PAN) August 2006). For instant, in Somaliland, the local farmers who produced the crop
mainly in sorghum and maize moved to cultivate their farms for cash crops including vegetable
due to the main impact from the excessive distribution of food aid in the markets.

The local farmers of Somaliland depend on the economically the crop and livestock production,
every year they produce a large number of tons for crop production without gained any support
from government or international donors. However, their situation changed due to extensive food
aid distribution in the harvest period. The different study collected from the rural and local
farmer’s shows the household that had previously received food aid spend considerably less time
supply labor to permanent and semi-permanent crops. Comparing the household not receiving
food aid worked five times as many days in agriculture activities than household that had
received food aid, “Thousands of people in Somaliland are getting more fresh meat in their diet
as a result of an innovative UN World Food Programme initiative that provides parents with
vouchers to help them afford nutritious food from local traders (WFP 2012.)

Under this program people receive US$80 of vouchers each month and can use them to buy a
variety of food including rice, cooking oil and fresh camel and goat meat. So far, around 15,000
people in north-western Somaliland are being given the vouchers as an alternative to food
rations, and WFP plans to expand the initiative to other areas later this year. “Using vouchers
gives people greater choice about what food to eat, and gives WFP a powerful new tool for
providing food assistance to the most vulnerable. (IBID)

According to this program, it clearly shows how the food aid impact on the household creativity
for using their manpower to invest in the land for producing their crops, moreover, its shows the
food aid program has created a community to become dependent on foreign aid. Each month if
the local communities received and used Cash for Voucher its will increase the dependency.
Some study presented this Cash for Voucher is mainly submitted during the Harvesting and rainy
Period whiles the local farmers and community preparing to cultivate their lands.

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Conclusion

The food aid has positive and negative impact on domestic production main in crops, The last
years Somaliland under crisis of drought which impact the life of agriculture and pastoralist
community in the rural area, the food insecurity has greatly influenced life standard of
household, the recurrent and occurrence of the drought has increased the demand for food aid
and also increase of crop prices of maize and sorghum. The study confirms that food aid is a
short-term solution to food insecurity in a vulnerable community, and this shows that food aid
does not contribute the asset creation or rehabilitation of target beneficiary communities. The
solution to food insecurity, the food aid should develop effective interventions strategies that
focus on the creation of productive assets for the target communities, as well as create market
linkage.

Food aid has played a great role in emergency response during the natural disaster and somehow
fills in the gap food insecurity of vulnerable communities. In the negative aspect, the food aid
has disincentive impact on the local farmers and decreased the agriculture investment, food aid
created dependence on the food aid, the local crop production declined, poverty and famine scale
up for the existing insecurity of food, the food production of at household level decreased.

The study was based on secondary data, and there is a need for effective analysis and extensive
research on the impact of food aid on crop production of Somaliland. In order, side to investigate
deeply the impact on the food aid on the community productivity and capacity, Finally, the study
presents the food aid has sufficiently influenced the crop production and created disincentive and
discouraged the ability and capacity of local farmers.

Recommendation
 The government should produce effective food aid policy and should monitoring and
evaluate the impact on the food aid on the local crop production, market, labor
allocation, household behavior and attitude towards affect on the food aid.
 Government should protect the local farmers by disincentive effect of food aid and
challenges from the market during the harvesting period
 Local farmers should increase their crop production and sustain their productivity for
using their input, food for work and voucher cash are most programs that discouraged
the land productivity. Government can use the food for work for infrastructure
improvement
 To improve the domestic production of the country, the government should pay
subsidiary for local farmers.

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