Taiwan government and Somaliland’s ministry of agriculture have jointly launched a demonstration farm project in Arabsiyo, located about 30 Km west of the capital city Hargeisa.
High ranking officials from the government were present including the Minister of Agriculture Mohamed Hagi, Director General of various ministries, Taiwan representative to Somaliland Allen Lue and his Somaliland counterpart Mohamed Hagi.
According to the officials, this demonstration farm project is intended for the majority of local farmers utilising standardized farming techniques and also for the development of the agricultural sector.
In his remarks, Somaliland’s minister of agriculture Mohamed Hagi expressed gratitude to the Taiwan government for initiating the project which he hopes to be a key factor to the agricultural development sector in this horn of Africa state. He advised local farmers to take advantage of this opportunity.
“ We have to utilize this great opportunity in partnership with Taiwan. I extend a request to the Taiwan government to implement more other developmental projects similar to this one in other parts of the country.” said the Minister.
Meanwhile, Taiwan’s representative to Somaliland Allen Lue shared with the participants the various stages this project has gone through to implement it. Allen said this will create an opportunity for regional countries to learn more from Somaliland.
Mohamed Hagi, Somaliland’s Ambassador to Taiwan, explained in depth the importance of agricultural production and pointed out that it’s the right time for Somaliland to avoid dependency on imported food and vegetables.
This project is to demonstrate and provide hands-on training on new, organic ways of farming, new farming techniques and new crops, and to learn issues pertaining to planting better crops with lower cost of production.
The demonstration farm has planted various vegetables and fruits including sweet pepper, water melon, Dragon fruit and many others.
