Agribusiness is a big industry in Somalia country in rural and urban towns. It
has been a challenge to manage this profitable business and the risks
surrounding this field made it inefficient and non-profitable. This study
focuses on agribusiness challenges including infrastructure gaps, financial
constraints, humanitarian gabs, security patterns and the absence of
government roles. The study employed and interviewed agricultural experts
and small farmers and conducted observations in agricultural lands in the
Lower Shebelle region. Agricultural experts who were interviewed addressed
the problems faced by agro-business persons, including infrastructure gaps
such as rough roads, non-functional irrigation systems, insecurity, floods, and
labour force migrations that were specific negative impacts on the local
communities. The harvested crops especially cash crops, perish during the wet
seasons on the farm because of the inaccessibility of roads, which causes a
delay in lead time and high transportation costs that result in exit farming to
the urban lifestyle. The labour supply from rural households had decreased
due to unemployment, insecurity, and land disputes between the domain clans
and the local people resulting in clan conflicts in the region. These difficulties
have been experienced for the last two decades, which impacted the decline of
agri-businesses and agricultural productions, and escalated labour force
migrations to the major cities also fuelled the displacements to urban towns.
In addition to that, the Al-Shabaab, clan militias, and other unidentified
persons imposed illegal double taxations levied on products that increased
costs of production and finally caused high price margins and a decline in
production capacity.
Keywords:
Agribusiness,
Agriculture,
Production,
Infrastructure,
Challenges,
Somalia