After 15 years of oblivion, Al-Shuqaif Village is back to vegetable farming

NFDHR:Adel Othman: - Monday, 17 December, 2018

 
For about 15 years, people of Al-Shuqaif village, Az-Zuhra District stopped planting vegetable crops due to the drought of wells and their inability to pay the costs of deepening the well and buying a generator and a pump to raise water.
 
“We used to plant radish, spinach, zucchini, melons, watermelon, okra and others, and our situation was just fine to plant, harvest, eat and sell what we needed." said Haj Ahmad Mohammed Hamli.
 
The deterioration of the economic situation, rising food prices and the spread of unemployment led to the inability of the people to buy vegetables and fruits from the market.
 
The National Foundation for Development and Humanitarian Response (NFDHR) intervened in the village of Al-Shuqaif in five villages targeted by the Food Security and Agriculture Project implemented by the Foundation in Az-Zuhra and Al-Qanawis Districts, Hodeida Governorate.
 
The foundation targeted all 106 families of the village, 50 of which received improved agricultural seeds, while the rest of the families received beehives, leghorn chicken and livestock inputs. NFDHR also rehabilitated the village water scheme and supplied it with a solar pumping system.
 
The families benefiting from the seed distribution activity received 15 varieties of vegetables and grains crops with the aim of cultivating them to improve the living conditions of the families and enhance the food security of the beneficiaries.
People were delighted after the rehabilitation of the water scheme and the start of water pumping, but because of the distance from water resources to agricultural lands and waiting for the rainy season; insufficient source of irrigation prevented the cultivation of all varieties.
Three people owned a land of about 6534 square meters next to the water resource donated it to the beneficiaries for agriculture.
 Twenty-five households began to reclaim, cultivate, and divide the land into small basins (3 by 4 meters) and started planting them under the supervision of the agricultural promoters of NFDHR.
 
The agricultural promoter helped providing the beneficiaries with new knowledge and skills in agricultural operations, methods of agriculture, bio-control, methods of preparation of municipal fertilizers, and the development of the crops of spinach, radish, horseradish, okra, pumpkin, tomatoes, zucchini and others.
 
Every morning, the beneficiaries go to their small basins to inspect them, monitor their growth and make sure they do not get exhausted every four days. They exchange talk and expertise about caring for their crops and harvesting the ripe ones for consumption in their homes and surplus and distributing part of it to 12 IDP families in their village.
 
Haji Hamli confirms that they will continue growing and expanding the area of ​​the cultivated land and deepen the well to ensure the increase in the amount of water, after NFDHR solved the problem of diesel through the provision of solar pumping system.
 
15 years after the cessation of vegetables cultivation in Al-Shuqaif village, fresh vegetables returned to the residents homes to decorate tables and to contribute to diversify sources of food and improve the standard of living of families and reduce malnutrition among the children of the village.