A first of its kind agriculture school has been established in Somalia by IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation. It is an important project to increase the agricultural production in the country where famine resulted in starvation of millions of people in the past.
The project is an offshoot of Agriculture School project initiated two years ago by IHH and developed into a faculty affiliated to Zemzem University.
The name of the faculty: “Anatolia”
The first faculty of agriculture opened in the country named after “Anatolia”. Currently 40 students are studying at the faculty. They are all on scholarship and the medium of instruction is English. The faculty also features comprehensive curriculum on practical training and application unlike many other similar faculties worldwide.
Modern agricultural methods to be taught
The faculty is built on 10.000 square metre of which 1000 square metre is greenhouse without soil and 1000 square metre is greenhouse with soil where all modern agricultural methods will be taught. Lots of agricultural produce primarily corn, sesame, soy beans will be adapted and produced on 350 acres land. Also education and consultation services will be provided to the members of the Somalia farmer association on the practical application areas of the university.
First modern poultry farm in Somalia
The university will also feature an English, Arabic and Turkish library and a water and soil testing labs. The university will contain the first modern poultry farm in Somalia, which will be used for education and practical training purposes. It will have facilities for incubation, feed grain production and slaughtering. The feed grains for the poultry farm will be obtained from the practical training lands of the university.
Agricultural high schools opening too
IHH has organized practical training sessions for the students of three agricultural high schools in the country. In addition to those schools, the fourth agricultural high school of Somalia funded by IHH started teaching in the 2014-2015 school year. A fifth one will open up next year with the sponsorship of IHH.
5-year plan
Somalia, which has larger arable land than Turkey, has a big agricultural potential. Yet the country’s produce is not sufficient for 15-million population. The greatest problem is the lack of qualified people for agriculture. The school of agriculture opened by IHH has already produced 600 technicians in this field.
IHH has activated 100 wells over the past 4 years in the country so that the famine that happened in 2011 would never happen again. For the next 5-year plan is to increase the agricultural high schools, to improve the faculty of agriculture, to set up farmer education centers, to raise the number of wells for farm water.
