USAID Somalia Partnership for Economic Growth Project Quarterly Progress Report April - June 2015

The project's primary focus was on economic growth through agricultural development, with a specific emphasis on South Central Somalia and Somaliland. The project's implementation was divided into four main areas: the second round of grants made through the Partnership Fund, agricultural activities with Amoud University in Borama, Somaliland, agriculture activities in South Central Somalia, and livestock activities in South Central Somalia. In South Central Somalia, the project registered a total of 1,750 farmers from Afgoi, Aw-Dheegle, and Bal'ad as contact farmers with the PEG program. These farmers received training on land preparation, which included land ploughing, harrowing, furrowing, and ridging, row planting and spacing between plants within a row, the rate and methods of nitrogen application, and Good Agricultural Practices (timely planting, weeding, irrigation, and proper pest control measures). The project also trained 595 farmers on new technologies, including fertilizers best safe application, pesticide safe application, bookkeeping, irrigation, harrowing, furrowing, and spacing. In Somaliland, the project continued to work with Amoud University on seedlings production initiatives. A total of 3,150 trays of tomato, onion, and lettuce seedlings were planted and distributed at the three sites of Amoud, Baki, and Ruqi. Additionally, the project conducted 84 group training sessions for farmers, each group training consisting of between 5-7 members. The project also made significant progress in livestock activities, with the completion of 24 cold boxes for cooling of milk cans and training of 24 Mogadishu-based milk traders at whose milk stalls the cold boxes were installed. An agreement was signed between SATG and the commercial fodder producers (Somali Umbrella for Livestock Development) concerning fodder production in Gu 2015 season. The project's quantitative achievements for the quarter included the creation of 1,062 new or improved jobs in South Central Somalia, with all of these jobs being improved through yield production increases by farmers in Afgoi, Aw-Dheegle, and Bal'ad. A total of 9 food security private enterprises received USG assistance in this quarter, all of which were from the South Central region. Additionally, 3 PEG grantees were successful in attracting investment from Shuraako, an organization based in Colorado. The project also made significant progress in developing policies and regulations for the Somalia government, with the development of 7 different policies and regulations, including the Somali Seed and Plant Varieties Act, the Somalia Seed & Plan Varieties National Performance Trials Regulation, and the Somali Dairy Act. These policies and regulations were validated and publicly reviewed by professionals in these fields with the help of the line Ministry concerned. The project's activity administration continued to be led by Lief Doerring, who assumed the role of PEG program manager at the end of June, replacing Njuru Nganga. The project continued to follow up with the Ministry of Aviation and the Ministry of Energy regarding the wind farm at the Hargeisa Airport, which was still not functioning due to a faulty turbine and an incompatible electrical grid system. The next quarter, July – September 2015, is the final quarter of the implementation of the Partnership for Economic Growth program. The offices in Mogadishu and Hargeisa will be closed, equipment disposed of (once the disposition plan is approved by USAID), endline surveys conducted in South Central Somalia and Somaliland, all grants finalized and closed, and all implementation activities completed. A closing stakeholders' workshop will be held in Mogadishu, focusing on agriculture activities in South Central Somalia. The draft final report for PEG will be submitted to USAID in October 2015.