UN Emergency Assistance to Afghan Farmers in Badakhshan
FAO Afghanistan has demonstrated that providing emergency assistance to farmers is a sustainable, dignified and cost-effective strategy to avert a major humanitarian crisis. Whereas FAO was traditionally seen as a development-oriented technical agency working together with host governments on relatively small-scale projects, it has played a demonstrable role in reversing food insecurity in Afghanistan since 2021. Reaching a quarter of the Afghan population with its agricultural assistance in 2023, the FAO wheat programme alone caters for nearly 20 percent of yearly caloric intake in the country. Millions of cattle, goats and sheep enjoy better health and productivity thanks to FAO livestock programmes, and more than two million vulnerable family members have benefited from the improved nutrition and income derived from backyard production packages.
The traditional humanitarian approach involves handing out food, shelter and protective care to victims of a humanitarian crisis. But refugee camps that last for decades led international aid agencies to seek ways to bridge the gap between humanitarian and development aid. How can one move from dependency on foreign assistance to sustainable development?
With support of, among others, the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund (UNCERF), FAO pioneered an approach based on the familiar saying “instead of giving people fish, give them a fishing rod and teach them how to fish”, counting on the Afghans’ well-known pride and resilience. Given the choice between receiving inputs to continue cultivating one’s ancestral lands or moving to a distant refugee camp to queue for assistance, most people in the world would probably choose the former. In Badakhshan they certainly do.
This is one of Afghanistan’s most breathtakingly beautiful provinces, with the Noshaq mountain towering at 7492m and most of the province above the 2500m. It borders on Tajikistan to the north and Pakistan to the south and east, and it even has a 90km border with China, more than 5000m high. It is populated mostly by Farsi-speaking Tajiks, while the high valleys are mostly inhabited by Pamiris, mountain people with surprisingly fair features: they claim to be descendants of Alexander the Great. Almost anybody who visits this province falls in love with it, despite the harsh living conditions.
Indeed, for Sharif, a 68-year-old farmer residing in Lowani village, life was not easy. He had to support his ten family members on less than 0,5ha of land. Recent years had seen a worrying alternation of drought and flash floods, making life difficult for the entire community, that depends on agriculture and livestock rearing for its sustenance. Winters can be long and harsh in this part of the world, so sufficient food reserves are required.
Sharif was one of the local beneficiaries of the UNCERF-funded "Safeguarding food and nutrition security of vulnerable marginal farming households in Afghanistan" project. One of its components is the distribution of certified wheat seed. Sharif received 50 kg of certified local seed – more resistant to the climate of Badakhshan, drought and disease than local varieties – as well as two 50 kg sacks of fertilizer and training. Average yields of this improved wheat allow a family of 10 to eat bread all year while keeping a surplus for selling in the market.
Nazri Begum, a 55-year-old widow living downstream in Paskham village, is the sole breadwinner for her 11 family members: six girls and five boys. Under the same programme, FAO helped her establish a backyard poultry farm. She received 30 pullets, 200 kg of poultry feed, and the construction of a chicken coop. Additionally, she received comprehensive training on poultry farming techniques, equipping her with the skills to keep her poultry alive. This initiative helped her nourish her family better while providing a source of income for her family. Her children also find it fun to have the chickens around.
Besides supporting individual vulnerable households with food production, the UNCERF-supported FAO programme undertakes the rehabilitation and construction of water irrigation structures in rural areas of Afghanistan. Thus, in the narrow valley of Hazaarah, Tagab district, a 38-meter river-bank protection wall was built to protect the community against increasingly frequent flash floods (the result of climate change). To improve irrigation, the community dredged and repaired a nearly 7.5 km long canal. 120 people, selected by village elders as the most needy ones in the community, each received USD 100 for their work. In a cash-strapped economy, a hundred dollars can go a long way.
The food and nutrition security project does not only take place in Badakhshan. From July 2023 to January 2024, the project supported 31 200 vulnerable households encompassing approximately 218 400 people in Badakhshan, Badghis, Nuristan, and Uruzgan provinces. By focusing on areas grappling with high levels of food insecurity – IPC 4: in emergency – FAO hopes to bring down the number of acutely food insecure people to much less than the current national rate: 36 percent.