While
emergency seed supplies were being made to the farmers, the
Future Harvest Consortium started looking at the long-term
needs of Afghanistan's agricultural sector. Needs assessments
were commissioned for four main areas: seed systems and crop
improvement; soil and water management; livestock, feed and
rangeland improvement; and horticulture. Consortium scientists
and survey teams visited every province in Afghanistan often
passing through mine-littered roads and fields, and checkpoints
in villages controlled by warlords. Thousands of farmers willingly
answered questions and told their stories of deprivation and
heartbreak. The needs assessment teams presented their results
to representatives of the Afghanistan Ministry of Agriculture
and Livestock (MOAL), U.S. universities, NGOs, the Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN, the private sector,
and the CGIAR Centers at a meeting held at ICARDA on 18-20
November 2002.
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Agricultural
land and road sides are still littered with live mines
in Afghanistan. |
The seed systems and crop improvement assessment reported
that increasing crop productivity at the household level would
substantially reduce rural poverty and hunger for families
whose debt insecurity averaged about US$ 800 per household.
The soil and water needs assessment listed lack of credit,
nutrient deficiency, seeds, and water as the major constraints
faced by farmers. They also noticed that farmers needed more
information on effectively managing their water resources
and using fertilizers. The livestock, feed and rangelands
assessment recommended institutional strengthening and human
capacity building, integrated small ruminant production and
animal health management, and improved dairy production for
households. The horticulture and marketing assessment presented
horticultural crops as the best option for replacing poppy
production in Afghanistan. While there is a market for the
traditional Afghan horticultural crops, many of the country's
cultivars and practices are unacceptable. The lack of roads,
transportation, and storage facilities also limits horticulture
from returning to its previous status of contributing 30-50%
to Afghanistan's export earnings. |
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