Somali commercial farms: greenhouses and irrigated farms in Somaliland and Puntland

The short version

In Somaliland, farming families use both rain-fed and irrigated land; crops and livestock together make up about 42.9% of GDP by government figures, and farmers around Hargeisa supply its 1.3 million people (Pharo Foundation, Somaliland Agriculture Productivity Enhancement Programme). Some farms are run as companies and grow vegetables, fruit and milk for city markets. Several of them borrowed from Shuraako, a lending programme of the One Earth Future foundation, which publishes a profile of each (Shuraako, clients).

Somaliland

• Horn Gardens set up in Hargeisa in 2016 as the Somaliland agent of the greenhouse supplier Amiran. By 2019 it had installed hundreds of greenhouses. A greenhouse with seeds, fertiliser, drip irrigation and one season of support from an agronomist cost about $6,000. Its own farm began with six greenhouses at Cara-yaambo, 32 km west of Hargeisa, staffed by six Kenyan agronomists (The Star, Kenya, 16 March 2019).
• Gobsoor Farm, founded in 2015 at Arabsiyo just outside Hargeisa, grew from 14 to 32.5 hectares with a Shuraako loan, and grows tomatoes year-round in 15 greenhouses. It had 14 staff in 2024 (Shuraako, 14 November 2024).
• Masno Farm, founded in 2017 by a returnee from Canada at Hora-haadlay, 28 km north of Hargeisa, has about 56 hectares, 4 of them farmed, growing vegetables, melons, avocado, soursop and papaya (Shuraako, Masno Farm).
• Dalsan Farms, set up in Burao in 2018, has 100 hectares with 640 fruit trees, grows onions and peppers, and sells fresh milk in Burao (Shuraako, Dalsan Farms).
• Evergreen Farm at Arabsiyo used its loan for a tractor, a delivery truck, 3,000 seedlings, solar pumps and drip irrigation (Shuraako, Evergreen Farm).

In 2019 Radio Ergo reported that a local group, Somaliland Agriculture Technology, had trained 2,000 farmers in drip irrigation, and that about 10,000 farms across six regions were using it (Radio Ergo, 13 March 2019).

Puntland

• Raaho Farm, founded in 2000 at Jibagal, north-east of Garowe, farms about 8 hectares of onions, carrots, watermelons, guava, maize and other crops, and also trucks other farmers' goods to market (Shuraako, Raaho Farm).
• Al Nur Mixed Farming has 10 hectares in the Jibgale valley, grows fruit and vegetables all year, and keeps more than 30 cows and camels for milk (Shuraako, Al Nur).
• Al Baraka Mixed Farm outside Garowe grows vegetables and fruit and sells camel milk to traders in Garowe; in 2021 it borrowed to drill a borehole and install solar-powered irrigation (Shuraako, Al Baraka).
• Barisamaad Farm, founded in 2014 at Bursalax in Mudug, sells produce to restaurants, hotels and households in the region (Shuraako, Barisamaad).

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