(ERGO) –  The lack of roads is having an economic and livelihood impact on hundreds of farmers living in areas under the Calmadow and Galgala mountains in the Sanaag and Bari regions. These people have no way to transport their crops harvested over the past three months.

This problem was caused by landslides and landslides in several places, which blocked the rough roads they used. The vegetables they harvested spoiled and were dumped, as there was no transport to transport them.

Ali Jama Farah, a farmer in Galgala, said he lost onions, tomatoes, olives, mangoes and other vegetables that were harvested several times in November from his two-hectare farm. He noted that this has become a financial burden.

“Our whole life revolves around the farm, and if the crop fails, our income is gone. The sale of crops is dependent on trucks and transportation has stopped, so we can’t travel by air, we have to travel by land.”

Ali said the road that was closed was the only one that connected him to the city of Bosaso, which is more than 80 km away. In the last three months, he has lost more than $3,000, including his expected profits and the hard work he put into it.

The farm was the source of livelihood for his family of 10. He said it is now unable to meet their basic needs. The only thing they eat is the crops they cannot sell, especially dates and vegetables.

“A person lives on income and would have to drink, eat or give to people who depend on them. All of that has gone. I lost about two thousand kilos of onions and tomatoes, so it’s a big disaster, there is no other work here.”

Ali said that they used to face road challenges, but now it is the worst. In his area, the only thing they don’t have to worry about is water, which they get for free from the stream.

The isolation caused most of the residents to move away, which prevented them from finding a domestic market for their products.

The man, meanwhile, indicated that his three-room house collapsed at the end of September, when the ground cracked.

They live in two rooms made of wood and old cloth, which cannot protect them from the sun or the cold.

“About 300 houses have collapsed. The best one is sleeping in his yard, the others have moved out. We still haven’t received anything for all that we lost.”

Ali said that three of his children, who were attending Hamdaan High School in Bosaso, were expelled in October after failing to pay the $60 monthly fee. They are now in the village without any education after relatives drove them back to their homes.

He also owes $1,700 to his creditors, which he promised to pay for the lost crops, but is now unable to do so. The man, who has always been a farmer in the Bari region, said they are unable to cope with the situation they have found themselves in.

Among those affected by this bad road is Osman Elmi Muse’s family of 6. They lost crops that he had invested a lot of time and money in planting.

The man, who owns a two and a half hectare farm in Mircin area of ​​the Calmadow mountains, said that he has no means of transporting his ready-made crops to the towns of Badhan, Bosaso and Taleex, which are 80 to 120 km away. He said that vehicles are hard to find and that they have made the rent expensive and that he cannot transport anything.

“It’s a very difficult and rugged terrain. The poor roads mean that if we grow vegetables or need them in the city, there’s no way to get them there and you end up without a vehicle, which means our fruits rot.”

Osman said that the crops that were harvested in September included lemons, limes, mangoes, and olives, but they did not yield any results. He invested $800, most of which was in debt, and he did not get anything back.

The man said that the lack of financial resources and roads has led to the lack of education and health services in the Mircin area. He said that he cannot take his family to the cities where these services are available due to poverty. Those who are sick cannot get the care they need.

Osman said that his children, who have reached school age, have never been to school. The village does not have a school and the lack of financial resources has prevented him from sending them elsewhere.

He has not paid $240, the wages of two men working on the farm, for three months. In addition, he has a debt of $530, which he used to buy food and clothing for his family on several occasions. Their livelihood has long depended on the farm, and now there is no work to be done.

The chairman of the Calmadow Farmers’ Cooperative, Abdihakim Ahmed Farah, said that they do not have the capacity to deal with the problem of bad roads. He noted that more than 40 villages along the mountains have been affected. This situation has led to the abandonment of the effort.

“Without a road, the trees are dying and shedding their fruits. Once a car arrives, no one can survive. We have tried many times to do something about it, but the land that has been broken up has been filled in.”

The governor said that many of the farmers are unable to manage their lives. He noted that they have complained to the Puntland government and humanitarian organizations several times, but have not received any response.

Climate change, which has caused frequent droughts, heavy rains that damage the land, and environmental degradation, has led to parts of the country experiencing previously unknown phenomena, such as landslides.

Source: Ergo