Somalian farmers are growing Ugandan sweet potatoes in an effort to tackle hunger. Amina Shale, a Somali farmer, says worsening droughts and ever more unpredictable weather are making getting a crop ever harder.
"It can take a whole year before the rains come," she complained. "Growing crops like tomatoes is very tiring because I have to water them at least twice a day."
But Shale now has some new ideas about how to cope, thanks to a trip to visit the neighbours.
She and 26 other Somali farmers travelled to eastern Uganda last month to see how sweet potatoes are turning into a climate-resilient, boom crop for that East African nation.
Uganda is now the leading producer in the region of root crops, which researchers say are much tougher in the face of worsening climate-change-related problems, such as drought and flooding.
Some roots, like cassava and sweet potato, are being processed into flour and are increasingly used for everything from doughnuts to wedding cakes.
That is helping boost incomes and ensure food security - something urgently needed in Somalia, where 40 percent of people are acutely food insecure, according to an estimate by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
Today, few Somali farmers know of - or grow - crops like sweet potatoes or cassava, Shale said. She plants vegetables and fruits such as tomatoes, kale and pawpaw.
But during the FAO-backed trip to Uganda, she saw how root crops require less irrigation - and she is now considering switching, she said.
