Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

In 2003 I worked with the Afghan Project personnel in Freemont California to develop ways on increasing thw income of women in Afghanistan. Our discussions centered around my paper on poultry production. See "Doubling the Income of Africa's Poorest Farmers" at my website at https://sites.google.com/site/PaulRigterink / We also discussed the use of home canning. See "A Plan for Improving Food Security in Afghanistan" at my website

Subsequent to our discussions the Afghan Project personnel were able to help convince the FAO Poultry Development Service, USAID, the World Bank etc to start a major number of backyard poultry projects (0-50 chickens) in Afghanistan. Unfortunetly, they were not able to convince these agencies to develop followup plans so that the women could fully take advantage of modern poultry technology. Followup plans would include descriptions of how to raise 50-500 chickens (family farm size) and how to raise 500-10,000 chickens (commercial farm size) (the technology is slightly different as described in my poultry paper above. Policy personnel need to establish a policy that Afghan women raising poultry should be introduced to the technologies for raising 200 and 1000 chickens. The differences in the stages of establishing a commercial poultry farm need to be fully explained to Afghan women. Afghan women raising 1000 chickens will have a lot more control of their lives because they will have much more control of the purse strings of their family.