Agriculture is an important sector in Afghanistan. About 36% of its households rely on farms for livelihood, while another 6% depend on farm wages as their main source of income. However, decades of conflict have left much of the irrigation infrastructure badly damaged, reducing productivity in the country’s farms. Most irrigation works are either small or medium-scale structures developed and managed by communities. Rehabilitating these systems will provide continuous and more intensive water supply to farms, benefiting about 1.4 million people.
Interventions
ADB, in partnership with the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction, addressed this concern by rehabilitating irrigation systems in four target provinces, namely Baghlan, Balkh, Ghor, and Samangan. The project, Community-Based Irrigation Rehabilitation and Development, used a strategic approach to increase agricultural productivity: repair and upgrade of 120 traditional small-scale irrigation systems through partnerships with local Community Development Councils (CDCs).
The project engaged CDCs in the four target provinces and enabled them to participate in the whole cycle of irrigation rehabilitation, from site identification to construction. By enjoining the people to participate in the process, the project was able to engender ownership, ensuring the sustainable success of all irrigation infrastructure upgrades. The project trained CDC members, too, so that they can manage all rehabilitated sites on their own.
Results
z The project provided quick wins to the four target provinces. Project implementation has generated jobs for the people. It has created work equivalent to 269,829 person-days, giving US$2,457,295 in wages to local communities.
It has also provided long-term benefits. The project has helped improved agricultural productivity in four target provinces in Northern Afghanistan by rehabilitating 151 irrigation structures, exceeding the initial 120 target. Now, the farming communities in the target provinces have better irrigation infrastructure—increasing by 9% the total irrigated area with sufficient water supply and by 40% the crop area irrigated by each system.
To ensure the sustainability of all rehabilitated irrigation systems, the project empowered CDC members by providing them with capacity-building activities. A total of 735 members (including 133 women) of 146 CDCs were trained in agricultural management, watershed management and conservation, program management (financial, accounting, general project management), construction project and quality control, and conflict management.