Fauculty of Agriculture

Welcome to the Faculty of Natural Resources

  Professor Abubaker 

The Department of Agriculture of the Faculty of Natural Resources of Amoud University started in September 2005 with a class of 30 students. The faculty will play a great role in the agricultural production and the exploitation of other natural resources of the country. It is located at the former campus of the Agricultural Secondary School in Amoud valley, which has recently been transferred to Amoud University by the Somaliland Ministry of Education.

I welcome the students who have already made their choice to join this new faculty and assure them that they will get the necessary skills in the field of agriculture.

I would also like to congratulate this year’s graduates from the other faculties and wish them all the best in the world

Amoud University, Faculty of Agriculture takes your career to new heights

Faculty of agriculture of Amoud University has already been opened and new courses will start in September, 2005. The University is situated 5 kilometer North East of Borama town. It composes of departments covering all aspects of agriculture for instance department of animal husbandry, department of agronomy, department of Agricultural Economics & Rural Sociology, department of Horticulture, department of crop protection, Department of Agricultural Engineering and Technology and Department of aquatic development.

Amoud University made a decision to open the said faculty given the fact that agriculture is the backbone of our economy and in addition to that provides wider scope and opportunities for the people in the country. As this nation approaches twenty first century requires more people that are involved in agriculture as their primary economic activity than ever before but unfortunately agriculture only accounts for four percent of the country’s GDP.

Faculty of agriculture of Amoud University will play a key role to the enhancement of crop production and the provision of people equipped with the latest knowledge in the field in addition to the provision of food for humans and animal feeds, Faculty of agriculture will play also a key role in the use of gene manipulation, better management of soil nutrients, and improved weed control and much more because all of these are mechanism that increase yield per unit area. The developing world generally produces lower yields, having less of the latest science, capital, and technology base.
At the moment, Agriculture in our country is a subsistence agriculture (the production of enough food to meet just the needs of the farmer/agriculturalist and his/her family). Amoud university with the establishment of the faculty of agriculture wants to transform the current agricultural system into that of industrial agriculture, (often referred to as factory farming) long prevalent in "developed" nations and increasingly so elsewhere, which consists of obtaining financial income from the cultivation of land to yield produce, the commercial raising of animals (animal husbandry), or both.

In addition to that; the improvement of a country's human resource capacity for productivity is a pre-requisite for social and economic development. In the agricultural sector, both formal and non-formal education is essential for improving food security and rural employment and reducing poverty. Formal agricultural education is needed for the production of skilled manpower to serve the agricultural sector through extension, research, entrepreneurship and commerce. Non-formal agricultural education, often provided by both public and private extension services, is needed for training of farmers, farm families and workers and for capacity building in a wide range of rural organizations and groups.

To meet the challenges of agricultural production and food security facing Somaliland today and in the 21st century, We must be willing to invest in our human capital for development. Improving human capital in agriculture is especially important for instance in our country where the shortage of trained human resources is a major limiting factor to development. However, Faculty of agriculture is taking advantage of good quality teaching staff holding higher degrees from prestigious universities in abroad. Besides it has also microbiology, biochemistry and soil labs equipped with state of the art instruments. Moreover, the library of the faculty of agriculture holds up to date text books on almost all the subjects of agriculture.

Abdirahman ibrahim abdilahi

Amoud University:

Where are we ?

Amoud University was officially inaugurated on November 4th, 1998 with the help of the community, consisted at the time of the two faculties of Education, Business Administration and Management. Currently AU has in addition to the above the following four faculties: the Faculty of information technology, Medicine, Agriculture and Environment, Law and Islamic Sharia.

Amoud University also runs diploma programs in the following areas; public and business administration for public and private sector respectively. It has also established a two-year secondary school teacher training diploma course (STTD) supported by UNESCO Peer and other development partners for form four leavers who wish to become qualified Secondary School teachers. Three cohorts of trainees have now graduated from this course and are teaching in the secondary schools of Somaliland and Punt land with the objective to improve participation and quality in secondary education, particularly that of female target groups. Some of the beneficiaries of the program have been the 60 scholarships for Form four leavers and the 20 practicing secondary school teachers at Amoud University. The main goal has been to encourage more able students to take up the teaching profession and to encourage young and unqualified teachers to upgrade their skills and stay in the profession. The program has been successful in the fact that it has had a major impact on schools by producing a new gen eration of young teachers.

Amoud University also offers training program for primary teachers of awdal and Sahel during the winter and summer vacations with the objective of enhancing the quality of the teachers at primary school level. The University has also opened a Distance learning and electronic center where students will follow online postgraduate courses through the African virtual university, AVU, of which Amoud is a partner. The AVU has equipped the center with 30 state-of-the-art computers, satellite dishes and other facilities. Amoud University also continues to grow and develop; recently it has been added to new faculty of law and Sharia and nursing school with degree program. The first lots of undergraduates are studying in these newly added faculties of law and Sharia and the nursing school. It’s a true African success story built on the vision and hard work of a group of scholars backed by the long- term commitment of the local community and the diaspora.

like everywhere else in Somalia, higher education is currently faced with great challenges and difficulties related to financing, surging numbers of students in the face of insufficient resources, equity of conditions at access into and during the course of studies, improved staff development, enhancement and preservation of quality in teaching, research and services, and relevance of programs. At the same time, higher education is being challenged by new opportunities relating to technologies that are improving the ways in which knowledge is produced, managed, disseminated, accessed and controlled. Therefore, the revitalization of higher education in the region is a major concern regarding de-facto local accreditation, quality assurance and recognition of qualifications. To respond adequately to these concerns. Amoud University includes its plan; the issues of accreditation, evaluation and quality assurance at national, regional and international levels. There is a general realization in the university to enhance research capacity and of joint research in support of quality assurance and dissemination of research projects. There are a quite number of universities in the region whose capacity in research is in excellence in relevance. Efficient use of their experience in the field will be valuable resource to the Amoud University and plans are also underway to receive relevance experience in the field from established universities in the region.

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Australian Scientist on a Short Visit to Amoud University

A Hydrologist and researcher Mr. Abdi Hassan Qasim of department of Primary Industries, Tatura centre who is currently on a short visit to Amoud university held a seminar on ways and means to develop research unit at Amoud university and mentioned that the main reasons behind establishing a research unit are to improve the socio economic development of the region and enhancing the quality of Amoud university. In addition to that the business enterprises and communities across the region will benefit from research conducted at Amoud University. He also took an example the history and developments of Tatura Research Centre of department of primary industries ( DPI) and addressed in detail the limitations of research programs in the areas of funding (internal and external), Motivation and incentives, Strategic planning and direction (especially for the young staff) and possible approaches of research areas starting with understanding on information needs of the clients, future business systems and collaboration with non government organisations to achieve better outcomes as well as engaging communities participation at all levels of the program. Mr. Abdi Hassan Qasim also stated the significance of publications in research and said unless you write down the good work that you have completed nobody realizes the work done. He went on to say the importance of publication hold on research findings and disseminations to stakeholders and community in large and in strengthening the quality and capacity and standard of the research institutions (e.g. Amoud University). Moreover; Mr. Abdi Hassan Qasim mentioned that research facilities are almost non existent and the ability of trained research and extension staff is generally inadequate

He also became the first research scientist who has held a seminar at the auditorium of the Faculty of agriculture and environment for the staff and undergraduate students in January 2006. The said topic of the seminar at the time was Irrigation management and overall objective of the seminar was to impart students for improved and appropriate land and water management technologies for subsequent dissemination to farmers, particularly small-holder farmers. Mr. Abdi Hassan Qasim spoke at the time in great length about water availability for agricultural production and increasing population pressure and the need for intensification of production to generate food surplus. He also expressed his concern on land and water management issues, sustainability of soil and water resources and pointed out that soil conservation have suffered considerable neglect. The specific seminar objectives at the time were to give students some skills to manage irrigation system more effectively and improve water use efficiency and to calculate the soil readily available water (RAW) which indicates how much water is available to the plants.

Mr. Abdi Hassan Qasim also identified irrigation potential soils and their suitability and limitations in water supplies and quality crops suited to particular areas and crop rotation as well as factors affecting Irrigation scheme operation and maintenance of water distribution systems. Similar, but more practical course was delivered to the farmers at Ruqi and Baki area of Awdal region.

The target groups of both seminars were farmers, extension agents from universities and undergraduate students. Participants had a thorough knowledge of the latest technical aspects of small-scale irrigation methods and technologies. The ability of students to analyze situations and identify workable solutions to small scale farmer problems was enhanced. Students got experience from similar area in terms of climate although the area in which the Scientist took an example is advanced in terms of the facilities provided but with all of these technologies and updated knowledge made them easier for the students to understand the seminar contents. We thank Mr. Abdi Qassim for his contribution regarding irrigation management, research, curriculum, education and extension activities of the Faculty of agriculture and Environment of Amoud University.

Mr. Abdirahman Ibrahim

Associate Dean Of faculty of agriculture and Environment

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