Vulnerable farming families to receive livelihoods assistance via a new FAO-led project funded by the Afghanistan Humanitarian Fund

The Afghanistan Humanitarian Fund (AHF) has contributed $9.5 million to an FAO-led project that aims to boost the resilience of farmers affected by conflict and natural disasters in 16 of Afghanistan’s most food insecure provinces.

Over 10 million people in Afghanistan are now coping with severe acute food insecurity and in need of urgent humanitarian support, according to a report issued last week by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification initiative (IPC).

The new FAO project will work to enhance the resilience against future shocks of over 660,000 people belonging to nearly 100,000 households whose livelihoods have been affected by conflict and natural disasters, with the provision of essential agriculture inputs – in particular, improved and certified wheat seed, fertilizer, and training on improved agriculture practices.

This will enable highly vulnerable small farming households to grow wheat during the upcoming cultivation season and contribute to higher farm yields, boosting people’s food self-sufficiency and generating surpluses that can be used as seed stock or sold for profit. The AHF is administered by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) under the leadership of the Humanitarian Coordinator.

“The impact of the 2018 drought and 2019 floods, exacerbated by the protracted conflict, has been devastating for smallholder farmers, impeding their ability to cultivate large plots of land or carry over surplus seed stocks for use in future planting. It disrupted local markets as well. This meant zero or little availability of local or improved varieties of seed within local communities,” said Rajendra Aryal, FAO Representative in Afghanistan.

“This AHF assistance will restore access by food-insecure farmers to certified seed for the upcoming season, protecting their livelihoods and the main source of food and income for their families. FAO is extremely grateful to the AHF for this time-critical support,” he added.

Under the project, each beneficiary family will receive inputs sufficient to plant around half a hectare with wheat, allowing them to grow and harvest more than 900 kg of the staple grain. That’s enough to cover their household consumption needs for one year as well as possibly generate surpluses.

All told, the AHF-supported FAO distributions are expected to result in a total gross wheat production of 113,200 metric tonnes in 2020.

Original source: FAO
Published on 19 November 2019