Somaliland: What are the agriculture skills this country needs?

Somaliland agriculture sector is second in importance among the production sectors after the livestock sector. 20 to 25 % of the country ‘s population depends directly on the sector for their livelihood despite constraints such as unfavorable climatic conditions ,inadequate technical capacity, inadequate institutional capacity and poor rural infrastructure , the sector has substantial untapped potential that needs to be harnessed in order for it to effectively contribute to national development.

One of the key constraints faced by the Ministry of agriculture and development (MOAD) is in adequate skilled man power .the human resource is the most important resource of any organization.

The efficiency and performance of MOAD will to a large extent depend on the availability on availability of qualified technical personnel to provide expertise in all aspects of agricultural development.

The Ministry of agriculture and development (MOAD) has to address the short, medium and long term human resource needs to ensure adequate and quality service provision to the sector. These include job on training for knowledge and skill development.

It is in the need of the hour to re-open the Drying Agriculture Institute to upgrade the skills and knowledge of both young graduates, Ministry staff and farmers alike to fulfil short, medium and long term requirement of skilled manpower in the country for agricultural development and achievement of national food security plan.

The Dryland agriculture Institute is closed now for lack of funds, earlier it used to employ highly qualified agricultural experts paid by SDF for research and training in the form of capacity building for Agrigraduates, ministry staff and farmers alike. The Institute, along with its dynamic agricultural environment is capable of producing agriculturists who are capable to face challenges confronting farmers of Somaliland. It will provide training both comprising both theory and practical needed by the above mentioned to become competitive in the job market; both here as well as overseas. However, the following skills are deemed to be necessary to achieve better results in the sector:

Technical knowhow or subject matter specialization for instances ; soil science, Entomology, agriculture engineering, Agriculture economics, crop production , plant breeding and Agriculture meteorology pesticide management, diagnosing and treating plant diseases, good agriculture practices and innovative technology transfer expert.
⦁ Mapping skills
⦁ Communication and information system management skills
⦁ Policy formulation
⦁ Monitoring and evaluation
⦁ Contract management
⦁ Conflict management
⦁ Human resource management
⦁ Management skills
⦁ Accounting skills
⦁ Data collection and analysis skills
⦁ Marketing skills
⦁ Report writing skills
⦁ Technical publication skills
⦁ Proficiency in IT
⦁ Project proposal development
⦁ Project planning and management
⦁ Cost and benefit analysis
⦁ Statistics expert

In conclusion, the implementation of the recommendations contained in this article costly and beyond the means of the Ministry of agriculture and development (MOAD). Its successful implementation will therefore depend on the good will and support of the internal and external development partners.

I therefore recommend for all stakeholders in the sector to contribute to the implementation of these useful recommendations.

Thanks

Abdirahman Ibrahim Abdilahi
Abdirahman270@gmail.com