According to the Food and Agriculture Organization ( FAO) of the United Nations (UN), cash and vouchers programs play a critical role in the response to shocks and crises when farmers, pastoralists, and fishermen can no longer buy food or the productive inputs they need. The program provides immediate relief to farmers, while also contributing to strengthening the resilience of livelihoods to future shocks, increasing agricultural production thus improving food security and nutrition. Cash and vouchers programs also allow recipients to choose for themselves, enabling farmers to purchase the goods and services they need most in their local markets.
Through the cash and voucher program, short-term, intensive, and unskilled labor employment opportunities are provided to men and women who are in turn provided with cash or food vouchers to purchase food for their vulnerable households. This prevents negative household coping mechanisms such as accruing debts and also stimulates local economies. Additionally, short-term employment involving building or rehabilitating community assets such as irrigation and water harvesting structures, or land rehabilitation will reduce the impact of natural shocks and promotes climate change adaptation and mitigation, and enhances the resilience of agro-pastoralist livelihoods to shocks.
Abdi Maalim is a beneficiary of the voucher program through Nomadic Assistance for Peace and Development (NAPAD). Abdi Maalim and his fellow farmer Said Farah sing in unison work songs as they work on rehabilitating their farm irrigation canals. Which supplies water from the nearby river Dawa to their farms. The two farmers worked together with twenty-four other farmers from Bella village, Mandera East, to rebuild farm canals under a NAPAD voucher project.
“Farming is a key source of household food and income for us and the earthen canals will allow us to continue irrigating our farmland more efficiently,” reports Abdi Maalim.
NAPAD in partnership with Medico International (MI) and with funding from the German Foreign Federal Office (GFFO) has supported 75 farmers from Bella, Gadudiye, and Darika Villages, Mandera East Sub-County under the food voucher project. Each household received food vouchers which enabled them to access 25kg of rice, 25kg of flour, 10kg of beans, and 5 liters of cooking oil from local traders each month for three months. Each of the 75 beneficiaries completed the rehabilitation of approximately 120 meters of earthen canals by the end of the three months.
With the newly rehabilitated canals supplying water to the farms, what was once empty, idle, and unproductive fields are now thriving farmlands. Maize, cowpeas, tomatoes, onions, and bananas are among the crops and fruits they are growing. Increasing the land under cultivation has increased the crop yield.
“We are selling our surplus farm produce to traders from Mandera Market and they pay us well.’’ prides Bella farmers’ chairman.
The NAPAD voucher program has also benefited 75 farmers in Korey, Dayah, and Bustle villages, Dollow district, Gedo region, Somalia. In total 18,000 meters of primary and secondary earthen canals have been rehabilitated in Mandera, Kenya, and Dollow, Somalia through the engagement of 150 farmers in the food voucher program.
“The food voucher support we received allowed us to concentrate on rehabilitating the canals for improved irrigation and developing more farmland for cultivation and irrigation. I appreciate NAPAD and the donors for helping us when we needed it most.” appreciated Abdi Maalim.