Improving Feeds, Rangelands, and Livestock Production in Afghanistan
Afghanistan runs on animal power. What's more, small-ruminant production is an important source of income and nutrition. Years of drought, however, have taken their toll on animal herds and the feed sources that sustain them. Now, the Future Harvest Consortium, led by ICARDA, is pooling its experience with that of its partners to help improve rangeland productivity and animal health and production in Afghanistan.
	Plowing the fields in Baghlan Province. In the mid-1970s, the agricultural sector (including livestock and forestry) accounted for about half of Afghanistan's GNP. About a quarter of the latter was made up of livestock and related value-added products. Livestock exports accounted for about 25 percent (US$65.5 million each year) of all exports. These comprised carpets and rugs (39 percent), Karakul pelts (30 percent), hides and skins (17 percent) and wool and hair (14 percent). There were also said to be unreported exports of live sheep to Iran worth US$33 million. Returning to these levels of production by 2010 should be an achievable goal. This is well below the rate at which annual cereal production is apparently recovering to pre-drought levels. Equally important as exports but less obvious is the contribution livestock make to the livelihoods and food security of much of the rural, as well as to some of the urban, populations. They supply high-quality, edible products which are essential constituents of the diets of children and pregnant and nursing mothers, particularly among the most vulnerable families who grow no crops. They also provide raw materials that can be processed to add value and when sold or bartered, generate income for their owners. Development assistance should therefore not only give attention to improving livestock productivity, but also to restoring marketing structures and to encouraging the export of goods such as carpets, for which Afghanistan has a comparative advantage. At its meeting in Tashkent in January 2002, the Future Harvest Consortium to Rebuild Agriculture in Afghanistan identified four needs assessments (NA), one of which would be on feeds, livestock and rangelands. It was conducted by ICARDA and involved several US Land Grant Universities, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MOAL) and NGOs under the auspices of the Livestock Working Group of the Future Harvest Consortium. The USAID provided generous support to ICARDA to conduct the NA. A wrap-up workshop was held in Aleppo, Syria, in mid-July 2002 to develop project ideas. Participants came from the MOAL, the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Kabul, US Land Grant universities (University of California, Davis; University of Purdue; University of Wisconsin-Madison, Texas A&M), the Department for International Development (UK), the Macaulay Institute (UK), the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the FAO livestock project in Afghanistan and from the host institution, ICARDA. Private consultants on gender issues, animal traction and small ruminant production and genetics also attended the workshop by invitation. The six project ideas developed by the workshop participants were: - Institutional strengthening/human capacity building - Dairy production - Integrated small ruminant production - Integrated animal health management - Animal power for tillage and transport - Village women's poultry production. ICARDA has long experience in improving livestock management and production, which it is putting to effective use to rebuild Afghan agriculture. Some of the Center's successes in dry-area countries around the world have included: - introduction of high-yielding, drought-resistant barley - introduction of forage legumes for better ewe milk production - vetch/barley hay mixtures for increased animal feed production - better ram selection for improved breeding stock - increased lambing rates - urea treatment of straw for enhanced ewe performance - feed-block production for better nutrition to meet feed shortages - field advisory training. In some areas, new forage mixtures and feed-block production systems have been used to dramatically improve sheep production. Feed-blocks are easily manufactured from agro-industrial by-products, and use their results in increased herd body weight and fertility. They are also a low-cost, effective means to augment seasonal feed supply in low rainfall areas. They have also spawned small and medium size production enterprises, especially in Iraq. They might hold similar potential in parts of Afghanistan. Spot-4 satellite image of the vegetation cover of Afghanistan in May 1998. (Source: FAO/GIEWS 2002) Satellites used to guide range management Satellite remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS) technology are being used in Afghanistan by ICARDA and Michigan State University, a Future Harvest Consortium member, to produce information to assist farmers in managing their rangelands for better forage production. Farmers are provided with maps and the training needed to correctly interpret and use them. The objective of the project is to produce a suite of rangeland information products to assist villagers and rangeland managers to efficiently manage their resources for better forage production. Landsat and MODIS images and existing GIS are used to determine and display grass cover, height, and total forage amounts in grass-dominant rangelands in the country. These products will be delivered both in map format and on CDs. A full report of the needs assessment on feeds, livestock and rangelands in Afghanistan is available on http://www.icarda.cgiar.org/Afghanistan/Need.htm.

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