Female farmers rebuilding orchards

For the first time in her life Maruim is sowing seeds and planting fruit trees in nurseries close to her simple house near the town of Balkh in the province of the same name in northern Afghanistan. Traditionally the work of men, a new programme is getting women out of the home and into the fields and orchards in order to improve food security and boost rural incomes. “I feel happy while working in the fields planting apricots, almonds and walnut trees, soon the money will come in as a result” said the 35-year-old mother of six. She’s part of a food-for-work project organised by the World Food Programme (WFP) in Balkh district, around 35 km west of the provincial capital Mazar-e-Sharif. The three-year programme, which was launched in October 2005, has established two nurseries that comprise hundreds of thousands of fruit and other kinds of trees in both Balkh and Nahar-e-Shahi districts. “The project provides training to around 800 women to give them skills in planting trees, irrigation, weeding and other farming activities,” said Mohammad Ismail, WFP’s field monitor in Mazar-e-Sharif. The WFP scheme is designed to boost women’s economic situation in this impoverished part of Afghanistan by providing the means to grow fruit and crops for cash. ”Many women are confined to their houses and welcome the opportunity to work outside their homes and earn money to support their families,” said 23-year-old Huzra, while weeding a field of juicy apricots destined for market in Mazar-e Sharif. Until the crops mature and start generating income, the UN food agency provides participants with enough provisions to get by. “We are providing 2.88 kg of food, including wheat, vegetable oil and salt to each worker per day,” Ismail noted. The nurseries are expected to produce around 1.5 million fruit and non-fruit trees each year and will be extended to other parts of the province where jobs are scarce and women, many of whom are widowed as a result of decades of conflict, have few opportunities to earn a living. Afghanistan used to be famous for its fruit orchards, but three decades of brutal civil war and six years of drought have caused massive devastation to the sector. During 2005, WFP’s northern regional office in Mazar-e Sharif assisted more than 400,000 people in five provinces with a variety of programmes, including school feeding schemes and responding to emergencies.