embarassing
VIP
As the security situation has begun to normalize over recent years, people are returning to Somalia’s traditionally banana-farming areas and beginning to pick up the pieces. As part of a broader effort to spur private sector investment in Somalia, the USAID-funded Somalia Growth, Enterprise, Employment and Livelihoods (GEEL) program, implemented by RTI International, has been supporting the revitalization of the country’s banana sector by providing training that addresses gaps in production, post-harvest processing and storage, and infrastructure. Earlier this year, the project organized a two-month training in Costa Rica — the world’s second-largest banana exporter — which brought Somali banana farmers halfway across the world to learn how to improve their banana plantations. Somali banana farmers from 18 prominent agribusinesses flew from Mogadishu to San Jose to study at the Escuela de Agricultura de la Region Tropical Humeda (EARTH) University, an agricultural college focused on sustainable agriculture in tropical climates.
