| With emergency seed distributions in progress, the Future Harvest Consortium shifted its focus to the long-term needs of Afghanistan’s agricultural sector. Needs assessments were commissioned covering four main areas: soil and water management; livestock, feed and rangelands; seed systems and crop improvement; and horticulture. |
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| Afghan farmers participating in the livestock and rangelands needs assessment. |
Armed only with penetrating questionnaires, survey teams and Consortium scientists covered every province in Afghanistan. They passed the impassable and achieved the nearly impossible to get the information needed to guide rehabilitation efforts. Thousands of farmers answered questions about agriculture, providing a clearer picture of their situation. Tea also appeared to have played a pivotal role.
When asked if Afghan farmers were reticent or suspicious about the questions, Joachim Mueller, a needs assessment team member from one of the Future Harvest centers said, “After a short period and with the aid of abundant tea, in all cases we achieved good participation.”
Even more difficult than crossing checkpoints and cratered roads, the survey teams listened to stories of deprivation and heartbreak. Every family seems to have lost members to the war. The drought brought agriculture to a state of collapse. In the Pashtoon Zerghoon district of Herat, Ibrahim of Dar Gharas told survey team member Raz Muhammad Fidai that he had planted 400 kg of wheat, 200 kg of barley, and 100 kg of chickpea. But because of drought, the crops failed. Other villagers reported that lack of sufficient food caused entire communities to be close to starvation.
The hard-won information by the needs assessment teams was considered by representatives from the Afghanistan Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MOAL), United States universities, NGOs, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the private sector, and the CGIAR centers, who gathered at ICARDA on 18-20 November 2002. All four needs assessment reports can be found at www.icarda.org.
The soil and water needs assessment pointed out some potential for expanding irrigated crop land. Afghan farmers need more information on effective management of water resources and use of fertilizer, which dropped off precipitously in the 1980s. The greatest constraints listed by the soil and water assessment team were the lack of credit for farmers, nutrient deficiency, seeds, and water. The farmers also expressed great concern over locusts, which hit in the following growing season.
The crop improvement and seed survey report stated that under normal conditions Afghan households were able to produce about 86% of their own food needs, but that drought had caused a considerable shortfall in meeting household food requirements. Debt insecurity averaged about US$800 per household, with very little capacity for repayment. Increased crop productivity at the household level would considerably reduce rural poverty and hunger on a lasting basis.
The livestock, feed and rangelands assessment recommended six "project ideas" with potential for short- and long-term impact in war-torn, drought-stricken Afghanistan. The ideas include work in institutional strengthening; human capacity building; improved dairy production; integrated small-ruminant production; integrated animal health management; animal power for tillage and transport; and village women's poultry production.
The horticulture and marketing assessment pointed out that in the past, horticulture provided 30-50% of Afghanistan’s export earnings and presents the best potential for replacing poppy production. However, global competition is increasing for traditional Afghan horticultural crops, and global preferences are also changing, making many of the Afghan cultivars and practices unacceptable. The lack of roads, transportation, and storage facilities requires substantial investment. Efforts to restock Afghanistan’s genebank and evaluate local varieties for development are already well underway.
