Better farm infrastructure and stronger cooperatives are boosting farmers’ incomes in Afghanistan. New storage and post-harvest facilities are reducing production losses, while farmers organize themselves to work together. Female and male farmers cooperatives have improved agri-processing and facilitate connections with national and regional markets.
With a poverty rate at 55% in 2016, Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world. Many of its people are hungry: about 44% of its inhabitants were considered food insecure. Most of them live in the countryside where the main source of livelihood is agriculture.
Many farmers suffer from low productivity. Lack of storage facilities further reduce their yields. They must sell their harvest right away because any delay could cause their harvests to perish. This hinders rural communities from selling their produce at optimal prices.
The government is doing its best to support its agriculture sector, but it needs assistance. The insurgency in Afghanistan hinders its growth and continuous to disrupt the lives of the Afghans. The country’s deteriorated road network also limits development. About $4 billion for the next three years is needed to fill the country’s infrastructure gap—an amount too heavy to carry by a country stagnated by war.
Interventions
To address this issue, the Enhanced Agricultural Value Chains for Sustainable Livelihoods Project was initiated in Afghanistan. With cofinancing from the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction (JFPR), the project provided farmers in Bamyan province storage facilities that kept their harvests fresh. These were made from bricks and stones that reduced damage from weather and pests. With internal temperature within 7–10 degrees and relative humidity below 95%, these facilities kept produce fresh, allowing farmers to store potatoes for up to three to five months, with losses of only around 3%.
Aside from providing storage, the project enhanced the capabilities of farmers and cooperatives on better production and management techniques. It also connected the farmers to national and regional markets by forming them into cooperative groups and linking them with local community development councils.
Results
The project built more than 2,800 potato and onion storage facilities in Bamyan, Kabul and Parwan, which helped reduced potato spoilage from 40% to just 3%. Onion losses went down from 40% to 19%. In addition, the project trained over 12,000 farmers in agriculture production practices, pest management and, harvest management. It successfully established 127 male farmer cooperatives and 55 female cooperatives in the Sheber District.