PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Marie K. Thompson
DATE: March 13, 2002
IFDC to Help Revitalize Agricultural Production in Afghanistan
"Rehabilitating the agricultural sector (of Afghanistan) will
not only reduce dependency on food aid but also ensure employment
opportunities . . . that will enhance the security
environment," says U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
Administrator Andrew Natsios. The USAID Administrator made
this statement during a December 2001 conference on the
reconstruction of Afghanistan held in Brussels, Belgium.
A recent USAID grant will allow IFDC to play a role in rebuilding
Afghanistan's agricultural sector. The Center is initiating an
emergency program to organize the private sector, which will provide
much-needed fertilizer to help the country jump-start its
agricultural production and to alleviate hunger and poverty. In
January 2002 IFDC was represented at a meeting of international
community representatives in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, which was
convened to chart the course of restoring Afghanistan's food
security. Dr. Lawrence L. Hammond, Director of IFDC's Resource
Development Division, and M. Feisal Beig, IFDC Senior Marketing
Specialist, attended the meeting of 74 participants representing 34
organizations.
Agriculture has traditionally been the largest source of economic
output in Afghanistan, and more than 80% of the country's people
depend on the rural economy. According to the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations (FAO), there are 65 million ha of
land in Afghanistan. Of this, about 30 million ha are
rangeland for livestock and 8 million ha are cultivated. However, food
production has been severely limited because the country is in its
fourth year of drought, not to mention the devastation of more than
two decades of war.
The World Bank estimates that cereal production, the main source of
Afghanistan's food supply, has fallen by almost 40% since 1999 and
is only half of what it was during the prewar years. Compounding
the country's agricultural problems are the insufficient
availability of fertilizer, the lack of farmers' purchasing power,
and the nonfunctioning of the agricultural input markets.
According to FAO, peace and long-term economic stability in
Afghanistan must be built on the restoration of the agricultural
sector. The shortest path to national stability will be for
the farmers to return to their fields and produce the nation's food.
To accomplish this, basic needs such as seed and fertilizer
must be supplied to the farmers.
Under the
USAID grant IFDC will supply fertilizer to Afghan farmers for the
2002 spring wheat topdressing and additional fertilizer for the
summer and winter planting seasons. The initial fertilizer
supplies will be distributed to the farmers in certain provinces
through commercial fertilizer dealers, using no-cost vouchers that
will be provided to farmers by CARE and its Afghan nongovernmental
organization (NGO) partners. IFDC arranged for a fertilizer donation
of 10-15,000 mt from the Government of Pakistan and is also
soliciting fertilizers from Arab fertilizer producers.
The immediate goal is to assess the realities in the country
in relation to irrigation and water availability and farmers’
capacities to cultivate.
IFDC will coordinate with the International Center for Agricultural
Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA)-led consortium that was created
during the Tashkent meeting and with the Afghan Interim
Administration regarding the delivery of fertilizer and seed for the
planting seasons.
The expected result of the activity will be that some 150,000 Afghan
farmers will use good seed and apply fertilizer this year with an
anticipated doubling of production from fertilized fields. Commercial
agricultural input supply activities will be restarted or
strengthened. Agricultural input dealer-farmer relationships
and supplier-wholesaler-retailer linkages will be established.
Despite its current problems, Afghan agriculture can recover again.
Along with its partners, IFDC can help the resilient Afghan
people to replace despair with hope for a better tomorrow.
"Using IFDC's holistic approach to rebuilding the country's
agricultural production system, we hope to have the opportunity to
assist Afghan entrepreneurs in establishing a market economy to
trigger economic development in their country," says Dr. Amit
H. Roy, IFDC's President and Chief Executive Officer. "The
lessons that we have learned through our work in Albania,
Bangladesh, and Kosovo can be applied in Afghanistan to help rebuild
that country's agricultural sector."
USAID Administrator Natsios understands the importance of a market
economy to Afghanistan's future. "The Afghan people have
demonstrated throughout their history that they are instinctive
entrepreneurs and, hence, a priority for Afghan reconstruction will
be to encourage the countries in the region to negotiate trade
agreements," Natsios says.
IFDC—An
International Center for Soil Fertility and Agricultural
Development—is a public, international organization (PIO), which
was founded in 1974 to assist in the quest for global food security.
The nonprofit Center’s mission is to increase agricultural
productivity through the development and transfer of effective,
environmentally sound plant nutrient technology and agricultural
marketing expertise.
Return
to What's New?
|
