(Ecofin Agency) - In order to insure food safety for the 28,000 Sudanese refugees who ran from the Darfur and moved in the Farchana arid region, in Eastern Chad, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the Lutheran World Federation had implemented a land sharing project with local farmers. This initiative turned out to be successful.

“We had agreed to share our lands with refugees because we share the same story, the same ethnicity, and the same religion. They are like brothers to us, so we decided to help them,” a local farmer told CCTV while another estimates that sharing lands is of mutual interest. “The project brought a major change in our lives. In the past, we didn’t have enough labor on our lands and these lands were therefore not used optimally. Today, with the refugees in, we cultivate all our lands. Donor agencies also gave us new technologies and ideas which we used to boost our yields,” he said.

The Chief of Refugees, Yakub Adam Yahup said the collective land management project was highly beneficial. “When we came to Chad in 2004, the situation was okay but in 2009, things changed. Food rations decreased drastically. And since last year when the project started, we are able to grow our own food and even sell some of it to manage,” he said.

This should inspire other countries that host refugees and have to deal with humanitarian crisis.

Souha Touré