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In Somalia, internally displaced women who previously depended on food aid are growing spinach, tomatoes and leafy greens in hydroponic units with nutrient-rich water instead of soil.
Transcript
00:00For these women in Somalia, working here is something very special.
00:06They planted everything themselves.
00:09And even though there's little water here in the region,
00:12spinach, chard and cucumbers are thriving in the hothouses.
00:17These beautiful farms have changed our lives.
00:23We used to get tomatoes and spinach from the market and cook it at home.
00:29Now we grow vegetables like spinach ourselves.
00:34Our life has positively changed and we have many benefits.
00:39The women have learned how to cultivate vegetables without soil.
00:43They mix core coconut fibre from coconut shells with some water and plant the seeds in it.
00:51SOS Children's Villages Somalia launched the project in Baydoa in 2022.
00:58Farming is very difficult in this largely arid country.
01:01Extreme weather events are making it even more difficult.
01:07At SOS, we thought of initiating a new method called hydroponic farming,
01:16which can cope with climate change.
01:22After the recurring droughts and floods, which forced people to evacuate their farms,
01:27we introduced hydroponic farming, which is quite new in Somalia.
01:31The plants don't need much room to grow.
01:38In a single hothouse, there are hundreds of pots in the pipes that are filled with water.
01:47This water has been enriched with nutrients.
01:51Like hundreds of thousands in Somalia, Amina Hassan has fled the conflict and extreme weather events.
01:58The work in the greenhouse is crucial to her and her family.
02:03She lives with her family in a camp for internally displaced people on the edge of Baydoa.
02:09I have twelve children. Two of them died in the drought, but ten survived.
02:17We spent one night in a town on our way to a village called Mador.
02:21The drought continued, and as we walked, we spent the night in different places.
02:26It was all due to a severe drought that had hit the country.
02:31Training in hydroculture and hothouse cultivation is part of the program,
02:36which is open to locals and people who have fled from other parts of Somalia.
02:41Some 500 women and young people have taken part so far.
02:45They're used to practice traditional arable farming.
02:48We've been mostly teaching women this new method of farming.
02:55We also taught a few men.
02:58We mostly taught women because they're the backbone of the family
03:03and are mostly engaged in food preparation and income generation.
03:08That's why we decided to teach women about the hydroponic farming system.
03:15Dotted around the city are 41 hothouses like this.
03:20Each one is managed by 10 to 15 women.
03:23They can harvest in all four seasons, producing enough food to cover their own needs and sell on the market.
03:31Together, they have a turnover of the equivalent of approximately 5,200 euros a year.
03:39Each woman earns some 43 euros a month.
03:43To help build the hothouses, the organization gets funding from Germany and Sweden.
03:49Each one costs 3,800 euros.
03:52The water pumps are solar powered.
03:54The government plays an advisory role.
03:58The project enables the production of quality, nutritious food within a short time.
04:07The introduction of cash crops through these initiatives not only feeds and benefits people,
04:12but also generates income for local communities.
04:18These efforts are essential in mitigating the adverse effects of climate change
04:22and ensuring the well-being and livelihood of the affected populations.
04:29Some of the vegetable crops are later planted out in sand to anchor the crop.
04:37At first, many women were skeptical, but now they are convinced by the new approach.
04:43We're asking the organization to expand greenhouse farming, so three to five people can share a greenhouse farm instead of 15.
04:53We expect the organization to increase the number of greenhouses, since we've learned and now understand this method.
05:02The pilot project in Baidoa is a success story.
05:07SOS Children's Villages Somalia is planning to introduce hydroponics in other parts of the country.

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