Agricultural projects at risk, says FAO

The livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of farmers in Afghanistan could be at stake unless urgently needed donor funds are provided, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has warned. "My main concern is that what we have done over the past few years, after Afghanistan suddenly popped up on the international agenda, will be wasted, because the commitment from donors on long-term funding has been diverted," the FAO programme manager for Afghanistan, Manfred Staab, told IRIN from the capital, Kabul, on Monday. The agency has a potential funding gap of around US $25 million, in a country where 80 percent of the population is dependent on agriculture as a means of income. "We are afraid that political events in other parts of the world are forcing donors to redirect scarce funds away from Afghanistan," said Staab. Since 11 September 2001, FAO has received around $40 million towards rehabilitating agriculture and regenerating rural areas in Afghanistan. Most of the funds were for emergency activities such as distributions of seeds, tools, fertilisers and locust control, but not long-term rehabilitation. Gaining the confidence of Afghan farmers in the long-term development of rural areas can only succeed if the agency builds upon what has been achieved during the emergency phase, according to Staab. Although FAO has funding until December 2003, future programming could come to a halt. "We haven't stopped any projects yet, but we may be forced to stop more than 70 per cent of our activities by the end of this year," he warned, adding that this would have serious repercussions on the farming communities. Agency officials say their objective is to enable Afghans to run their own institutions and play the leading role in restructuring the agricultural sector. With 275 national and 30 international experts and a special network covering all parts of the country, including services in remote areas, the FAO has a large infrastructure to maintain. Its long-term projects include seed production, the cultivation and marketing of fruit and vegetables, livestock vaccination campaigns and veterinary services, the rehabilitation of destroyed irrigation systems and the strengthening of fragile government services over the next few years. Meanwhile, the Afghan agriculture ministry has also expressed grave concern over the lack of funding, saying that it would have a devastating effect on the country's breadbasket. "There are many priorities and challenges ahead. We are in dire need of reactivating our research centres, technical services and laboratories. We want to upgrade our farmers with today's modern technologies and equipment," the deputy minister of agriculture and livestock breeding, Engineer Mohammad Sharif, told IRIN in Kabul. "We have estimated US $72.6 million dollars as our annual development budget for this year to meet most of the challenges in long-term development projects. But unfortunately we have not received a penny out of that amount," he lamented. Sharif said he hoped his country would become self-sufficient soon, producing its own seeds rather than importing from outside. The FAO has become a strong player in supporting farmers with seed delivery and multiplication, animal production and health services, milk production and marketing projects, successful poultry-raising projects for women and the rehabilitation of irrigation systems. Several hundred thousand farmers have profited from these projects over the past few years, according to the UN agency. "Food security needs to be ensured all over the country, now that almost 55 percent of livestock has been lost as a result of war and drought, and we need to take measures for compensating that big loss," Sharif said. Donors who have supported the FAO's activities in Afghanistan include Belgium, the EC, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Kuwait, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, the UK and the US.