YAP Proposal #388: Food security through fishing (Ismail Wehlie, Somalia)

My name is Ismail Hassan Wehlie, 23, from the Somalian federal government. I have a degree in agricultural science I have participated in a lot of campaigns for livestock development. I have special training in fish farming and fish harvesting agribusinesses.

This project is called “creating wealth and sustainable food security through fish farming”. Our country’s fish consumption contributes highly to nutrition and at the same time there is wide and seasonal food insecurity. This is a result of improper and poor harvesting of fish.

I have been doing business in commercial fish farming and dairy farming for a while now. The objective is to produce fish all year round and by providing adequate technical training as well as suitable price market for fish it is possible.

Fish farming is an important source of both food and income to many people in developing countries, including Somalia. Unfortunately, Somali fisheries are still largely undeveloped and play a minor role in the nation’s economy.

However, they could become important. Somali fishermen caught only about 11,000 metric tons (t) of fish in 2012, a small catch for a country with over 3,000 km of coastline. Most of the Somali catch is harvested near the northeastern coast, between Alula and Bella.

In Somalia proper, fish harvesting is an important sector due to the high demand as the population increases. It is a realistic food source that is both cheap and healthy.

In Mogadishu city I aim to change the way of fishing by providing adequate training, which will contribute positively to our national economy as well as offering consultation for their work as a way to encourage other fishermen.

This project will be carried out by categorizing the problems and challenges faced by fishermen during their work. We will supply needed equipment and also visit their markets and co-operative. In the end we will provide substantial equipment support as well as satisfactory training.

What encourages me for this suitable project is that our country got destroyed in many aspects starting in the 1990s up to now, especially our national economy and all infrastructures. These challenges diminished fishermen’s activity and their production got lower and lower.

Improving the productivity of fishing for human consumption as well as income, will help combat against poverty and food shortage.

Also the project will bring employment opportunities for youth, untrained persons and also unskilled workers, especially internally displaced people (IDPS), to support their livelihoods and secure a sustainable job.

Some of the steps I will undertake are listed here:

• I will visit the coast and meet them the fishermen by questioning how they work, facilities used and skills they have to explain to us their greatest problems needing a solution.
• I will hold technical training and workshops for capacity building based on their problems.
• I will distribute equipment and technological materials for better fishing and provide them with knowledge on how they will use it. The program will start off by giving basic equipment like fishing hats, lines, hooks and sinkers.

Future plan

Our vision is to get a great number of professional fishermen active for a sustainable livelihood and employment to help establish food security for our community.

The USD $5,000 funding will be spent on:

USD $500 for cost of seminars and training services.
USD $1500 for cost of making small courses on practical training.
USD $1000 for cost of necessary fishery equipment including fishing hooks, fishing nets etc.
USD $500 for publication of guide books for simplifying better fishing techniques.
USD $1000 for hiring better storage to reach far away markets.
USD $500 for the cost of team workers and information gathering through communication and transportation.

 

Blogpost and picture submitted by Ismail Wehlie (Somalia) – wehlie241[at]gmail.com

The content, structure and grammar is at the discretion of the author only.

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This post is published as proposal #388 of “YAP” – our “Youth Agripreneur Project”.

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