Background

Decades of conflict and several years of drought in Afghanistan have severely damaged the country’s social and economic assets. There are millions of Afghan refugees in Pakistan and Iran as well as hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) throughout the country. Since 2002, nearly four million individuals have returned to Afghanistan. In May 2007 alone, 77 900 undocumented Afghan labour migrants were forced to leave Iran with their familes and return to their homeland.

To a large degree, the future security of Afghanistan depends on the absorption of its displaced people into agricultural livelihoods. Agriculture is the mainstay of Afghanistan’s economy with an estimated 85 percent of the population dependant on farming for food and income. The revival and growth of agriculture is necessary for:

• the food security and welfare of the rural population
• foreign exchange earnings through the export of agricultural produce
• the reintegration of returnees and disarmed former combatants into stable communities
• providing legitimate alternatives to growing opium poppy

FAO’s emergency role in Afghanistan

Since October 2001, FAO has collaborated with the international community to increase its agricultural rehabilitation activities in Afghanistan. Following the United Nations appeal for assistance to Afghanistan in November 2001 in which FAO participated, an Emergency and Rehabilitation Unit (ERU) was established within the FAO Representation in Kabul. Since that time, the ERU has implemented a programme of activities to support and enhance food security and livelihoods throughout the country.

To date, FAO’s emergency and rehabilitation programme has delivered more than US$52 million in assistance. The activities implemented by the ERU in Afghanistan are closely linked to the medium- and long-term development programme under the FAO mandate, which is in line with the Afghanistan Compact.

The range of projects include:

• alternative agricultural livelihoods programmes
• development of an Afghanistan variety and seed industry
• support to vulnerable populations in drought affected areas through provision of quality declared wheat seed and fertilizer
• plant protection activities addressing the major threat posed to crops by melon fly and Colarado beetle 
• development of integrated dairy schemes in Afghanistan