An Analysis of the Impact of Foreign Food Aid on Local Food Production in Somalia: A Case of Farmers in Afgooye District, Lower Shabelle Region, Southern Somalia

The food insecurity landscape has changed globally due to widespread issues such as the persistence of conflict in some countries like Somalia and the rise in natural disasters over the last decade has seen the rise in the number of major humanitarian disasters. Food aid is the Largest part of humanitarian assistance and it is estimated to account for 25 % to 30% of all aid (Harvey, Proudlock, Riley, Clay and Jaspers, 2010, pp. 1 & 2). The main objective of this study was to explore the impacts of foreign food aid on local food production in Southern Somalia, focusing on farmers in Afgooye district to establish whether food aid directly affects farmers' capacities to produce food locally. The study was directed by the following objectives: To gain an understanding on the nature or the type of food distributed as aid and how food aid is administered or distributed; To explore the impact of food aid on local food production; and to understand the factors driving the persistence of and dependency on food aid in Afgooye district, Lower Shabelle region, Southern Somalia. The theories that framed this study include the realist, the liberal and the dependency theory to help analyze and make sense of the situation that has negatively impacted local food production and has perpetuated dependence on food aid. The methodology used in this study incorporated both the mixed-method and descriptive research designs for data collection and analysis. The target population of the study was 150 farmers from Afgooye district, specifically 50 farmers from three different villages within the district namely Kuurale, Balbaley and Jaran bringing the sample size 150 in total. A homogeneous purposive sampling technique was used obtain the farmers. The primary data was collected using questionnaires that contained both open-ended and closed-ended questions. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated restrictions the researcher was unable to travel and collect the primary data herself, for this reason the questionnaires were sent via email to hired research assistants in Somalia who printed them on and conducted the guided interviews and sent back the filled questionnaires to the researcher to Nairobi via cargo. Subsequently, the researcher conducted key informant interviews by contacting the respondents directly via telephone, and the open-ended questions in the questionnaire were used as questions for the key informant interviews in order to obtain more detailed information. Both the sets of data were organized, classified and coded using a simple numerical system and analyzed using Microsoft Excel and was presented in the form of pie-charts and bar-graphs. The purpose of the first objective was to determine whether the type of foods distributed as aid are similar to the types of foods grown by the farmers, and whether this similarity affect their capacity to produce food locally. The study found that the food aid distributed is similar to the types of food grown by local farmers and is part of the population's staple diet, but the farmers did not see food aid as negatively affecting their production because they believed there are too many people who are food insecure in the country, and were aware that they are unable to produce enough food collectively to feed the population The second part of the first objective was to discover whether farmers are eligible for food aid assistance. The study found most farmers are eligible for food aid assistance as they qualify with respect to the selection process on the basis of either economic and/or physiological vulnerability. The second objective sought to establish the impact of foreign food aid bad on local food production over the span of 10 years from 2010-2020. The study found that almost all farmer’s yields decreased over the span of 10 years not because of food aid, but due to climate change and environmental issues, plant disease and pest infestation, civil conflict and insecurity, poor irrigation infrastructure, poor road infrastructure, lack of capital, lack of farming input, and unskilled labor. The third objective sought to establish the factors driving the persistence of and dependency on food aid with in Afgooye district in Southern Somalia. The found that the same issues that farmers said contributed to their decreased yields over the past ten years are the main factors that perpetuate their reliance on the persistence of food aid.