Afghanistan remains one of the world’s largest food crises, with a high number and share of people experiencing acute levels of food insecurity and malnutrition driven by repeated shocks on the fragile socio-economic landscape. While previous concerted humanitarian efforts helped to halve food security levels since its 2021 peak, these gains remain extremely fragile. Progress is increasingly at risk of reversal due to funding shortfalls, deteriorating health services and recurring climate and economic shocks. Addressing acute food insecurity and malnutrition in Afghanistan requires sustained and scaled-up agricultural support.

Agriculture is Afghanistan’s most direct path to ending hunger. It is the main source of food, jobs and income for 80 percent of Afghans, especially in rural areas where food insecurity is highest. When agriculture fails, hunger rises. When it succeeds, Afghan families can do what every family strives to do: put food on the table and build a better future for their children.

But for too many Afghan families, that path is blocked. Decades of conflict, economic shocks and chronic underinvestment have left rural communities highly vulnerable. Climate emergencies – drought, floods, avalanches – strike with growing intensity. Water is scarce, land is degrading, and most farmers lack the basics: quality seed, irrigation, pasture, veterinary care, storage, markets and climate risk information. Women, who are vital to family farming and nutrition, face even greater barriers.

Across more than 400 districts, FAO works to both meet urgent food needs and strengthen the systems that sustain rural livelihoods. Its interventions span crop and livestock production, natural resource management, irrigation rehabilitation, pest and disease control, cash-based programming, value chain development and private sector engagement. Together, these efforts help to stabilize food production in the short term while restoring productivity, improving market access, building resilience over time, while transforming Afghanistan's agrifood systems.

This integrated approach is essential to closing Afghanistan’s food production gap, diversifying livelihoods and enabling rural communities to move beyond repeated cycles of crisis.

To sustain and scale this impact, a clear and coordinated path forward is needed: one that connects immediate food security needs with longer-term agricultural recovery and transformation.

FAO’s contribution to the agricultural sector in Afghanistan strategic roadmap sets out this path.