April 2002
The Future Harvest Consortium to Rebuild Agriculture in Afghanistan was newly created in January 2002. It was necessary to act fast to meet the emerging food crisis. Afghan farmers needed seed to sow their spring crop by mid-April to the beginning of May 2002,

Wheat is the most important crop in Afghanistan, covering from 80-85% of the arable land or about 4 to 8 million hectares annually. The average Afghan consumes a half-kilogram of wheat daily. The seed

Instead of shipping in wheat seed from other countries, ICARDA staff provided training in clean seed production and contracted with Afghan farmers to produce the seed for the fall distribution. A rigorous program to ensure quality was put in place, which included field inspections, removal of off-type plants, post-harvest treatment against disease, and proper packaging. Farmers benefited from internal investment, training, access to high quality seed and a reduced risk of importing unwanted pests.

To remove chaff, weed seeds and other impurities, the seed was cleaned manually, using methods that go back thousands of years. The wheat was hand sifted, then shoveled into the air. The sifting removed the chaff and the wind blew away the smaller and lighter weed seeds. The seed was also treated against pests and pathogens.

The seed cleaning facilities were essential sources of income for Afghans living in surrounding villages. Over 300 female heads-of-household were employed by the cleaning and distribution process, which has injected over one million dollars into the Afghan economy.

The fall 2002 Future Harvest Consortium wheat seed campaign distributed nearly 5,000 tonnes of improved wheat seed to more than 90,000 farmers in eleven provinces. Weather permitting, this distribution of high-yielding, disease-resistant wheat is conservatively estimated to produce more than 100,000 tonnes of wheat in 2003.

The 2002 short-term emergency measures were just the first step in developing sustainable agricultural production systems. As part of the Consortium's activities, many varieties of wheat, barley, lentil, chickpea, and vetch have been provided to Afghanistan for evaluation and multiplication in cooperation with farmers. Included were landraces, which had been stored in ICARDA's genebank. These varieties and landraces will provide farmers with a broader range of production options far into the future.