Home News in English Somali Farmers In Afgoye Cut Down Lemon Orchards As Market Shrinks

Somali Farmers In Afgoye Cut Down Lemon Orchards As Market Shrinks

Farmers in southwestern Somalia’s Afgoye, in Lower Shabelle region, have been cutting down their lemon orchards because they are unable to sell the fruit at a profitable price. Abukar Haji Osman, a father with two families of 16 people, has been growing lemons as a cash crop for the last 20 years. “I have cut down 812 lemon trees on my 13 hectare farm,” he declared. “There were too many lemons and there was no market. I decided to plant other crops that will earn me a decent income.”

Abukar has planted maize, pumpkins and beans on the eight hectares where he has cleared his lemon trees. On the other five hectares he is cultivating various vegetables. A half barrel of lemons that used to sell for $30 two years ago has been selling for a pitiful $3 recently. Farmers say they are no longer able to pay their workers nor the fuel bills for irrigation systems for the orchards. Mohamed Abdullahi has been exporting lemons to Yemen and Iraq since 2009. Both those markets have collapsed due to wars. “I have 2,000 bags of dried lemons that have been in my store for more than 10 months. We have nowhere to sell them,” Mohamed said. “I used to have 40 workers involved in drying and transportation, and I exported 500 tons of lemons per year. After paying the expenses I made $25,000 to $30,000 but now I have not exported anything so I have released all the workers.”……

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