CNH Industrial has signed a trailblazing import and distribution agreement with Gaalooge Farming & Livestock Cooperative for CASE IH products in Somalia. Following decades of setbacks and severely challenging circumstances, thanks to this recently signed agreement farmers in Somalia now look forward to accessing reliable new machinery from Case IH, as well as service and parts support.
For many years these farmers have only been able to import used machinery for their farms. Additionally, farmers and rural communities had to contend with debilitating droughts and decades of civil war, the Covid-19 pandemic, macroeconomic challenges, and a recent desert locust upsurge.
Now, attention is focused on how the country’s private sector can drive and sustain agricultural growth in a country that relies on agricultural production. Key requirements for boosting agricultural investment in Somalia are to better exploit international and regional linkages and create strategic partnerships for sustained national growth.
The Gaalooge-Case IH partnership was initiated at the Italy-Somalia Business Forum in Mogadishu in December 2019 where negotiations were supported by teams of experts from the Enterprise Development Units in Somalia and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) Somalia Programme.
The Ministry of Commerce and Industry of the Federal Government of Somalia, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry of South West State, Somali and South West State Chamber of Commerce and Industry, provided technical assistance while the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS) provided funding and facilitated by UNIDO as part of the Agro-Technology Development for Economic Growth in South and Central Somalia project, which aims to foster inclusive and sustainable industrial development of the sector in Somalia. Finance was provided through the credit facility established by UNIDO and powered by IBS Bank.
Gaalooge, based in Baidoa, Somalia, is registered as a cooperative under the local Ministries of Commerce and Agriculture. Owned by a group of Somali farmers, it is a dedicated agro-business enterprise actively involved in the production and distribution of a variety of agricultural inputs and farm machinery throughout the country.
Somalia has considerable productive resources, which offer huge potential for delivering rapid economic growth, with important impacts on people’s livelihoods. These resources include 8.5 million hectares of arable land, more than 50 million livestock and about 1.8 million tons of fish annually for export. However, only 2.3 million hectares are under rainfed agriculture plus another 630,000 hectares under irrigation.