Drought forces thousands out of Sar-e Pol

Thousands of farmers in the northern Afghan province of Sar-e Pol have moved to neighbouring areas in search of food, water and work, following a disastrous harvest due to a severe three-year drought. “They had complete crop failure this year, and could face the same again next year,” Klaus Haas, project coordinator for German Agro Action, an NGO in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif told IRIN. Haas added that many wells in villages across Sar-e Pol had also dried up, forcing Afghans into displacement. Haas explained that the ongoing drought in Afghanistan had affected the whole northern region, home to the largest farming community in the country. Farmers knew they would be facing a severe water shortage this year, and decided to plant 40 percent less than last year. While unable to obtain accurate statistics, Haas estimated that half of the population of Sar-e Pol had already left the province. German Agro Action is one of a few international NGOs working in the province, and has been distributing food aid there since last June. Haas said they were looking at ways of rehabilitating farmers, including increasing water supplies. There has been very little rain this year in the northern region, where the impact of the drought is clearly visible. One of the worst-affected farming areas is the remote Sheram district of Sar-e Pol. Under normal circumstances, the hilly district should be covered with golden wheat, but, instead, the land is brown and bare. Farmers in Sheram told IRIN that many had moved to other provinces, some even as far as Pakistan, to make money, so they could return home and live on what they had earned. Haas explained that populations of entire villages had left Sar-e Pol and didn’t plan to return until the drought was over. Most headed for the northern Balkh Province, the economic centre of the region, he added. Despite a bad harvest, one local farmer, Sahib Khan, who had lived in the village of Nawhaji in Sheram for the last 20 years, decided to stay. “I have 10 hectares of land, but no wheat has grown on it this year,” he said. Last year, Khan harvested 210 kg of wheat, which, at a stretch, lasted his family of eight a couple of months. He added that he was now travelling to the nearest market to beg for food and find work. “It’s an eight-hour journey there and back,” he said. Khan told IRIN that farmers would leave for the market late at night and return the following afternoon, only to earn a few cents. Most employers at the market also provided lunch and dinner, an incentive for the farmers to find another job. “I have not eaten vegetables for at least two years because of the drought,” he added. Khan reminisced about the days when he grew 2,000 kgs of wheat a year. But with the drought set to continue until next year, the worst in 30 years, there was no chance of him achieving the same amount again in the near future. He said that in previous years he had even been able to sell surplus wheat and earn around US $120 a year. Access to clean water had also become a huge problem, and villagers in Sheram said they were having to travel for two hours to the nearest well to fetch drinking water. In addition, livestock was also rapidly decreasing, with farmers reporting losses of up to 50 percent of cattle. They said they had either been forced to sell their livestock to buy food or the animals had died from the heat. Given UN estimates that 85 percent of the country’s 21 million people are directly dependant on agriculture, the future for Afghan farmers remains bleak.