Practice and Assessment of the Productive Safety Net Program On Livelihood of Smallholder Farmers: The Case of Dollo Ado District, Somali Region

The study was conducted to assess the practice of a productive safety net program on the livelihood of smallholder farmers in Dollow ado district, Somali region. For this study, the researcher employed both primary data and secondary resources. The relevant primary data were collected through tools such as the household survey questionnaire, key informant interviews, and observation. The secondary data were published and unpublished articles, journals, office records, books, and theses. The study participants were PSNP beneficiary farmers, development agents, kebele administrators, and early warning and food security office coordinators and employees. The data collected through primary and secondary sources were thematically organized and analyzed through triangulation to increase the accuracy of the study's findings. The study has found that the productive safety net program has registered some improvements on aspects like number of meals per day, monthly food consumption, and availability of community assets but no improvements on other aspects like total crop production, number of livestock, availability of household assets, availability of production materials, and the use of negative coping mechanisms that are put forth by the researcher as measures to evaluate the effect of the program on the study area. The researcher made some recommendations after examining the effects of PSNP on the livelihood of smallholder farmers in the study area. Major emphasis is placed on the timing of food distribution, the quantity of food aid in relation to household size, the distribution of a variety of cereals rather than relying on the same type all the time, the intervention on social services, the implementation of other food security programs in the area, particularly credit service and household package programs, discipline while targeting, and, finally, attention should be placed on the quality and quantity of community assets that are generated.